
Class \ 

Book lB.4- 



THE GREAT 



NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE 



PUBLIC PMYEP 



FREQUENT COMMU> TT ON, 



DESIGNED TO REVIVE 



|)rxmttix)€ $ut£« 



BY WILLIAM BEVERIDGE, D.D., 

LATE LORD BISHOP OP ST. ASAPH. 




NEW YORK 



JAMES A. SPARKS, 

Churchman's Bookstore, 16 J Fulton street, opposite St Paul's. 



1845 






S. W. BENEDICT & CO., 

Stereotypers and Printers, 16 Spruce Street. 



PREFACE. 



The name of Bishoi Beveridgeis too well known 
in the English Church to need any formal introduc- 
tion. Some of his smaller works have ever been held 
in so great esteem, that his eminent piety, as attested 
by them, lives in the affectionate remembrance of 
many, who have never learned to regard him in any 
character but that of a devotional writer. And this, 
without doubt, is as he would most earnestly have 
wished. He would have desired rather that his me- 
mory should be handed down among the names of 
those who died in faith, than that he should be invest- 
ed with the learned dignity of a doctor in the Church. 
Yet the man who at the age of eighteen years com- 
posed a treatise on the excellence and use of the 
Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Samaritan lan- 
guages — in after life, the deeply learned work on the 
Canons of the Primitive Church, and also the compi- 
lation of Councils as received by the Greek Church, 
may well take a place in the first order of divines.* 

* Synodicon sive Pandectae Canonum SS. Apostolorum, et 
conciliorum ab Ecclesia Greeca receptorum. Oxon : 1672. 



IV PREFACE. 

The importance of recalling attention to this feature 
of Bishop Beveridge's character is very great. For in 
him we see a man of acknowledged eminence for piety 
and learning, bearing a broad and direct witness to the 
great catholic verities taught and practised by the 
English Church. 

His judgment, therefore, is not that of a good man 
on whom for lack of learning we mistrustingly rely ! 
nor of a learned man whom for lack of piety we follow 
with suspicion ; but of a man in whom the habits of 
study and devotion were, through a long life, closely 
and inseparably interwoven. 

The Treatises on Public Prayer and Frequent Com- 
munion, instructive as they must be at all times, 
become of a manifold importance at this day, when 
the cold practice of modern religious systems has 
established itself, even in serious minds, as the rule of 
Christ and his Apostles. The day must come, so at 
least we hope in faith, when men shall look back 
with amazement at their easy and contented acqui- 
escence in the low condition to which the worship of 
God is fallen. If any past age had more of the talk of 
devotion on its lips, certainly none had less of its out- 
ward habits than the present. Passing over, for a 
moment, the breach of that great rule by which God's 
Church for nearly four thousand years has ordered its 



PREFACE. V 

daily ministrations, it is surely strange, that in an age 
so loudly claiming to be religious, men should deem it 
enough to offer public worship to Almighty God once 
in seven days, and to show forth the Lord's death 
some four, six, or even twelve times a year. There 
must be something vicious at the root of this popular 
persuasion : some dullness in the moral sight that seri- 
ous minds do not perceive by the keenness of intuition 
that as it is the duty of every redeemed soul, and of 
every Christian household, daily to worship God 
through Christ, so is it in like manner the duty of 
every several flock under its pastor, and of the whole 
united flock throughout the world, daily to worship God, 
the Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of Mankind. The 
daily prayers of a Christian man, of a Christian house- 
hold, and of the Christian Church, have one common 
basis and obligation. No man is thought to be dis- 
charged from his private prayers because he attends 
the prayers of the household where he dwells : nor is 
the head of any family discharged from the duty of 
consecrating his household to God by daily united 
worship, because he prays himself in his private cham- 
ber: so neither do the public prayers of the Parish 
Church discharge any man from the duty of worship- 
ping God both in his household and in private. Nor 
again, do these habits of daily devotion discharge any 



VI PREFACE. 

r 

Christian from the duty of worshipping God day by 
day in face of the Church, and in the fellowship of the 
flock of Christ. " These ought ye to have done, and 
not to leave the other undone." Matt, xxiii. 23. 

But plain and visible as this duty is, there is still a 
truer and plainer way of stating it. It is by being 
made members of the Church of Christ, that we are 
made partakers of his redemption : it is the Church 
that is redeemed and we in it : it is the Church that is 
regenerated, and renewed, and kept through faith, so 
that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it ; and 
we by being members of the Church partake of rege- 
neration, renewal, and the grace of perseverance. To 
the Church is promised the presence of Christ unto 
the end of the world. To all the public assemblies of 
his Church, even to the smallest portion of that one 
body, is the pledge given, " where two^or three are met 
together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." 
The duty of worship therefore binds first the whole 
Church of Christ, and us as we are members of it. 
The worship of the Church is the great type and earn- 
est of all particular and private devotions. It includes 
them, and they are developed out of it, as the action of 
each several member of the body is contained in the 
energy of the living man. It follows, therefore, that 
the private and family prayers of Christian men, so far 



PREFACE. Vll 

from discharging them from the duty of public wor- 
ship, are themselves no more than fragments of God's 
worship when detached from it. They are reflections 
of the daily public homage which the Church does to 
Almighty God. From this they are vitally derived, 
and into this they return again ; even as we ourselves 
in all the things of a holy life serve God as members 
of that one great body, which in earth and heaven 
offers adoration day by day, "the incense of prayers 
breathed out of holy souls which is the sacrifice of 
saints." 

It is wholly needless to offer, in this preface, any 
further proof of that which is so fully shown by Bish- 
op Beveridge in these two Treatises, namely, that the 
Church catholic in all ages, and the Church of Eng- 
land to this day, contemplates and enjoins on all Chris- 
tians the duty of daily worshipping God in common 
prayer. In one word it may be said that until the 
setting in of these latter times no Christian man 
ever gainsayed the duty. We have to contend against 
a two-fold opposition, for it is now not only neglected, 
but denied. It would be a painful and thankless task 
to trace out the falling away of men's hearts from God's 
public worship in the last hundred years. The cold- 
ness has stolen over us, and we know it not. Let the 
fact suffice, that about this time in the last century ? 



Vlll PREFACE. 

there were, in London, seventy-five churches open 
daily for common prayer : and in fourteen the holy 
Eucharist was administered every Sunday and festi- 
val.* 

How great a decline of private and family religion 
went before, and has followed after this visible falling 
away, we can hardly tell : but we may be sure that the 
chill of this decline must have been deeply and widely 
spread. We may well wake up with alarm, when we 
read what a Christian writer of tjie third century 
wrote of the last times. " The sanctuaries of God shall 
be as common dwellings : everywhere shall churches 
be overthrown : the Scriptures shall be despised ; and 
men shall everywhere celebrate the impostures of the 
enemy."f " The churches shall lament with a great 
lamentation, because that neither oblation nor incense 
shall be celebrated, nor the service wherein God de- 
lights. But the consecrated shrines of churches shall 
be as a shed for summer fruits ; and the precious body 
and blood of Christ shall not be seen in those days ; 
the liturgy shall be extinguished ; the chaunting of 
psalms shall cease ; the reading of scriptures shall not 

* See a small Tract called, " Pietas Londinensis," an abridg- 
ment of Paterson's Ecclesiastical State of London in 1714. 
Burns, 1838. 

t De consummatione mundi, ascribed to Hippolytus. S. vii. 



PREFACE. IX 

be heard ; but there shall be darkness upon men, and 
lamentation upon lamentation, and wo upon wo."* 
This downward current has already set in upon the 
Church, and we ourselves have too far been carried 
along with it. 

I may add a few words on the frequent administra- 
tion of the holy Eucharist. 

That the holy Eucharist was celebrated for four 
hundred years in some churches daily, in others three 
times a week, and in all churches every Lord's day, 
we have plain and abundant proof. St. Augustine 
says, " Some communicate every day in the body and 
blood of the Lord : others receive it on certain days : 
in other places on no day is the oblation omitted : in 
others it is made only on the Saturday and Sunday : 
in others on the Sunday alone." t St. Chrysostom also 
calls the holy Eucharist " The daily sacrifice."! 
" Consider," he says, " I pray, the table of the King is 
made ready, and the angels minister, and the King is 
present .... He comes daily to see the guests."§ 

Indeed, the public worship of Christian men was 
not thought complete without this holy Sacrament. 

* Ibid. xxxv. 

t S. Aug : ad Jan : Ep : liv. 2. 

X Horn. iii. in Eplies. 4. See Bingham's Antiq : b. xv. c. ix. 4. 

§ Ibid. 5. 



X PREFACE. 

It was the visible symbol of the catholic faith, wit- 
nessing to the eyes of men the incarnation, the sacri- 
fice, the crucifixion of the Son of God, and our incorpo- 
ration with him, by a mysterious power, into one body; 
it was the retrospective symbol of propitiation, the 
visible pleading of Christ's blood-shedding, through 
which alone the prayers and intercessions of the Church 
were offered ; it was the type and the test of unity 
among baptized men ; and it was the sign and witness 
of our watching for His second advent ; showing forth 
the Lord's death till he come. 

How far the Socinian heresy w r hich denies the God- 
head and sacrifice of Christ, and the presence and 
being of the Holy Ghost ; how far the low unspiritual 
religion of these latter days which counts the rending 
of Christ's visible Church a light or doubtful sin, and 
the expectation of Christ's coming a distempered fan- 
cy, be the easy and natural consequences of an infre- 
quent and negligent administration of the Holy Eucha- 
rist, the fixed and visible witness of these great myste- 
ries, may be left to the thoughtful Christian to decide. 
It is enough to say that these heresies are dominant 
where the Eucharist is most neglected : and that they 
are repressed, if not absolutely expelled, wherever it is 
duly honored. Who can doubt that purity, and unity 
of doctrine on the great mysteries of the catholic faith, 



PREFACE. XI 

have been preserved in the English Church by the pro- 
minence she has given to her liturgy for the celebra- 
tion of the Holy Eucharist? As she closes up her 
several prayers and intercessions by pleading in words 
the merits of our Redeemer, so she fulfils the entire 
offering of her solemn service by the action which He 
himself commanded in memory of his death and sacrifice. 

It is possible that there may arise, in some thought- 
ful and religious minds, misgivings as to the effect of 
frequently receiving the Holy Communion. The fol- 
lowing suggestions are therefore added, in the hope 
they may gradually remove any doubt or scruple. 

Is it not certain that the earlier ages of Christianity 
were the purest, and that the administration of the 
holy Eucharist was then most frequent % 

Is it not true, that the effect of constant habit in re- 
ligion is to confirm and deepen the religious charac- 
ter ? Who, for instance, would advise any man to go 
to church less often, say once a fortnight — or pray in 
private less frequently, say once instead of twice a 
day, for fear that frequency should diminish reverence 
and induce familiarity'? Why then should frequent 
Communion lessen our reverence 3 Or, rather, how 
can infrequent Communion fail to produce the same 
lowering effect as infrequent attendance at Church, or 
infrequent prayer in private ? 



Xll PREFACE. 

But is not the Holy Communion a Sacrament of 
grace ? And will not that grace not only preserve the 
minds of true Christians from the irreverence of fami- 
liarity, but also sanctify, and perfect the mind of Christ 
in the faithful man ? 

Is not the man that often partakes of it made there- 
by more meet to partake of it again ? Does it not 
deepen and establish both faith and penitence, the 
very habits of mind which it requires as conditions to 
the worthy receiving ? 

Let any sincere Christian make the trial. Let him 
trust himself to follow the steps of the early Saints 
and Martyrs of our Lord. Frequent Communion did 
not dull their keen sense of holy things, neither shall 
it dull ours. Let the broad rule and order of the 
catholic Church outweigh his misgivings ; and, after 
the trial made, let him ask of himself^vhether he has 
detected the ill consequences of which he was afraid, 
and if so whether the disturbing cause is to be found 
anywhere but in himself. 

But, because these Treatises may fall into the hands 
of those who are engaged with the oversight of a flock, 
it may be as well to add from one of Bishop Beveridge's 
other works, a testimony drawn from his own practice 
to the rule he has laid down. 

" Ye live in a Church so truly apostolical, that she 



PREFACE. Xlll 

hath taken care that this holy sacrament may be ad- 
ministered, as it was in the Apostles' days, at least 
every Lord's day, and also every Holy-day in the year. 
And where there are a sufficient number of communi- 
cants in any parish, the Minister cannot refuse to give 
it them whensoever they desire it : and I hope there is 
never a Minister in the diocese, but would be more 
ready to administer than his people can be to receive 
it. In the place where I had the honor to serve God 
at His altar, before He called me hither, I administered 
it every Lord's day, for above twenty years together, 
and was so far from ever wanting communicants that 
I had always as many as I and two Curates could 
well administer it to them : for people found such ex- 
traordinary benefit, and ghostly comfort from it, that 
they never thought they could receive it often enough ; 
and the oftener they received it, the more they still de- 
sired it : many never omitting it if they could possibly 
come to it ; whereby they became the great ornaments 
of our holy religion, such as the first converts were : 
and such ye may all be, if you would but take the 
same course for it. . ."* 

Does not experience show, that the number of com- 
municants is always greatest where the Holy Com- 

* Bishop Beveridge's sermon on the Exemplary Holiness of 
the Primitive Christians. Works, vol. v. p. 9. 10. Oxford, 1818. 



XIV PREFACE. 

munion is oftenest, and least where it is seldomest ad- 
ministered ? 

To the objection, There would not be enough com- 
municants for a weekly Communion, the answer is 
there are not, because the weekly Communion is 
neglected. What is this objection but pleading the ill 
effects of our own low practice as an excuse for not 
correcting the evil from which they flow ? "Weekly 
Communion gathers and multiplies its own attendants. 
Let the Church faithfully give both the bidding and 
the warning, and the Lord will provide himself guests 
for his own supper. 

May these Treatises fulfil the purpose for which 

they were written, and stir us up to seek with our 

whole heart a more habitual fellowship with Christ 

our unseen Head, and a more complete oneness of 

spirit with the members of His mystical body in all 

the earth. 

H. E. M. 

Lavington, 
July 10th, 1844. 



THE 



GREAT NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE 



public |3rag£r„ 



THE 

GREAT NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE 

OF 

PUBLIC PRAYER. 



Acts hi. 1. 

Now Peter and John went up together into the Temple, at the 
Hour of Prayer, being the Ninth Hour. 

From your presence here at this time and 
place, dedicated to the service of the Most 
High God, I cannot but in charity conclude, 
that you all believe that he governs the world, 
and disposes of all things in it, according to his 
own will and pleasure. That it is in him you 
live and move, and have your being ; that you 
neither have, nor can have anything but what 
you receive from him, and that you are therefore 
come hither now, on purpose to acknowledge 
his goodness to you in what you have, and to 
pray unto him for what ye want. And verily 



18 PUELIC PRAYER. 

ye do well to take all the opportunities that ye 
can get to do so ; for this is the way to continue 
in his love and favor, and to live always under 
his care and protection. But for that purpose 
ye must not think it enough to pray to and to 
praise him only now and then, when ye have 
nothing else to do ; but this should be your daily 
business, the constant employment of your 
lives. He himself commands you by his Apos- 
tle, To Pray without ceasing, 1 Thes. y. 17, and 
to Pray always, or at all times, with all Prayer 
and Supplication in the Spirit and to watch there- 
unto with all perseverance, Eph. vi. IS. Not as 
if ye should do nothing else but pray ; but that 
prayer should run through and accompany every- 
thing else ye do, so as to begin, continue and end 
all your actions with praying to and praising 
God for his direction and assistance ; though 
not always with your mouths, yet howsoever in 
your hearts, by lifting them up unto him, as any 
man may do, in midst of other business. Thus 
David praised God seven times a day. Seven 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 19 

times a day do I praise thee, saith he, because of 
thy righteous judgments, Psal. cxix. 164. Not 
that he never did it oftener,but this was the least 
he ever did it. For being a man after God's 
own heart, his heart was always running upon 
God, and praying to him ; and that too not only 
in his mind, but with his mouth also. I will 
bless the Lord, saith he, at all times, his praise 
shall continually be in my mouth, Psal. xxxiv. 1. 
And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness 
and of thy praise all the day long, xxxv. 28. 
Thus all that would live a truly pious and di- 
vine life, must keep their hearts always fixed 
upon God, admiring his goodness, magnifying 
his power, and imploring his grace and mercy, 
not only every day but every hour of the day, 
at all times, upon all occasions that offer them- 
selves, as some or other do continually. 

But besides our thus praying to and praising 
God in the midst of other business, we ought 
to set apart certain times in every day, wholly 
for this. The saints of old were wont to do it 



20 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

three times a day, as we learn from Daniel. — 
For when king Darius had signed the decree, 
That whosoever should ask a petition of any God 
or man for thirty days, except of the King, should 
be cast into the den of lions, it is written, That, 
when Daniel knew that the decree was signed, he 
went into his house, and his windows being open 
in his chamber, towards Jerusalem, he kneeled 
upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, 
and gave thanks unto his God, as he did afore- 
time, Dan. vi. 10. As he did aforetime ; which 
shows that this had been his constant practice 
before, and he would not leave it off now, 
though he was sure to be cast^nto the den of 
lions for it. But what times of the day these 
were, which were anciently devoted to this 
religious purpose, we may best gather from 
king David, where he saith, Evening and morn- 
ing, and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud, and 
he shall hear my voice, Psal. lv. 17. He begins 
with the evening, because day then began, ac- 
cording to the Jewish account : .but he observed 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 21 

all these times of prayer alike. And so ques- 
tionless did other devout people as well as he. 
The Jews have a tradition that those times were 
ordained to that use, the morning by Abraham, 
noon by Isaac, and evening by Jacob. But 
whether they have any ground for that or no, 
be sure this custom is so reasonable and pious, 
that the Church of Christ took it up and observ- 
ed it all along from the very beginning. Only 
to distinguish these times more exactly, the 
Christians called them (as the Jews also had 
done before) by the names of the third, sixth, 
and the ninth hours. Of which Tertullian saith, 
tres istas horas ut insigniores in rebus humanis, 
— ita et solenniores fuisse in orationibus divinis, 
as they were more famous than others in human 
affairs, so they were more solemn in divine pray- 
ers. Tertull. de Jejun. c. 10. 

I know the primitive Christians performed 
their private devotions at other times as well as 
these ; but at these set times every day, espe- 
cially at the third and ninth hours, they always 



22 PUBLIC TRAYER. 

performed them publicly, if they could get an 
opportunity. And if we would be such Chris- 
tians as they were, we must follow their pious 
example in this as well as in other things. This 
therefore is that, which by God's assistance, I 
would persuade you all to, and for that purpose 
have chosen these words for the subject of my 
present discourse, as setting before you the ex- 
ample of two of Christ's own apostles in it, St. 
Peter and St. John, of whom it is here said, 
That they went up together into the temple at the 
hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 

The Holy Spirit of God by his amanuensis, 
St. Luke, is here about to describe a great mi- 
racle wrought upon a man who was above for- 
ty years old, and had been lame from his mo- 
ther's womb, whom St. Peter made perfectly 
sound and whole, only by saying, In the name 
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. 
And he begins it with telling us that Peter and 
John went up together into the temple at the hour 
of prayer. But what is this to the purpose ? 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 23 

Would it not have been sufficient to have de- 
scribed this as he usually doth other miracles, 
without such minute circumstances of time and 
place ? Yes, certainly, it would have been so. 
And therefore I can see no reason why this 
should be recorded, but only to teach us, that 
though the Levitical law expired together with 
our Saviour, yet the public worship of God 
ought still to be kept up at certain times and 
places, set apart for it, For here we see two 
great Apostles, the one called the first, the 
other the beloved Disciple ? these two, when 
endued with a more than ordinary measure of 
the Holy Ghost, did not think it enough to pray 
at home, or together with their brethren in any 
private house ; but they went to the place that 
was dedicated to the public worship of God, 
and at the time when that worship was then 
performed. And this is left upon record that 
Christians of all ages may know it, and learn, 
by their apostolical example, to lay hold on all 
opportunities they can get of performing their 



24 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

public devotions to Almighty God in such 
places and at such times as are appointed for 
that purpose. 

For our better understanding of this, we shall 
consider two things : First, the place whither 
these apostles went, they went up to the tem- 
ple : and then the time when, they went at the 
hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 

First, they went up into the temple, hg t6 tegov, 
to the holy place, as the word signifies, to the 
place dedicated to holy uses, to the service of 
the most holy God. Such places God always 
had upon earth, and he always looked upon 
them as his own in a peculiar manner. Though 
the earth be the Lord's, and "the fulness thereof 
or everything that is in it : Yet when any part 
of it is solemnly devoted to him, and to the 
worship of his holy Name, he takes possession 
of it for himself, as he did in a visible manner, 
both of the tabernacle and the temple. 

And, from that time forward, he hath a new 
kind of propriety in such places distinct from 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 25 

that which he had before, and reckons them his 
own in a more special sense than other places 
are. He himself, as well as others, calls them 
his ; as where he saith, In that ye have brought 
into my sanctuary strangers uncircumcized in 
heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary ', to pollute 
it) even my house, Ezek. xliv. 7. My house 
shall be called an house of prayer, Isai. lvi. 7, 
and so he frequently saith, That this house was 
called by his name, or his name was called upon 
in it, as Jer. vii. 10, xi. 14. And in all places, 
thus dedicated to him, and called by his name, 
he himself hath promised that he will be pres- 
ent in a special manner to bestow his blessings 
upon those who there sincerely call upon him. 
In all places, where I record my name, I will 
come unto thee, and I will bless thee, Exod. xx. 
24. The truth of which promise, God's faithful 
people have had experience of in all ages : and 
therefore always accounted it to their interest as 
well as duty to frequent such places as often as 
they could. As we see in David, a man after 



26 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

God's own heart. What pleasure did he take 
in going to the house of God ? / ivas glad 
when they said unto me, let us go into the house 
of the Lord, Psal. cxxii. 1. How happy 
did he esteem those who could be always there ? 
Blessed is the man, saith he to God, whom thou 
choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he 
may dwell in thy courts, he shall be satisfied with 
the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy tem- 
ple. Psal. lxv. 4. How doth he long to com- 
municate with them in it ! How amiable, saith 
he, are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts ! My 
soul longeth, yea, even falnteth for the courts of 
the Lord, my heart and my flesh i cryeth out for 
the living God, Psal. lxxxiv. 1, 2. How doth 
he envy the very birds that come into the house 
of God, when he himself, being then in exile, 
could not ; Yea, the sparrow hath found her a 
house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where 
she may lay her young, even thy altars, O Lord 
of Hosts, my King and my God, v. 3. How 
doth he prefer this before all the pleasures of 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 27 

the world besides ; For a day in thy courts, 
saith he, is better than a thousand ; I had rather 
be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to 
dwell in the tents of wickedness, v. 10. There 
are many such places in the Psalms which show 
the great love and honor he had for the house 
of God, and the extraordinary comfort and de- 
light that he used to find there. 

Thus also Daniel, when he was at Babylon, 
although the house of God was then destroyed 
and not yet rebuilt, yet in his daily devotions 
he opened the windows of his chamber towards 
Jerusalem, Dan. vi. 10, that he might look at 
least towards the place where the house of God 
once stood, and so expressed his earnest desire 
to worship God there, and his faith in the pro- 
mises which God had made to those who did 
so, and by that means, when he could not pos- 
sibly do it any other way, he made his private 
devotions in a manner public, joining in his 
soul with the whole Church of God in his pub- 
lic worship when he could not do it in his body. 



28 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

But not to mention any more of the many 
instances of this kind in the Old Testament, in 
the New it is written, That Anna the Prophet- 
ess departed not from the temple, but served God 
with fasting and prayers night and day, Luke ii. 
37. It is written, That old Simeon, that just 
and devout man, came by the Spirit into the 
temple, v. 27. It is written, That Jesus him- 
self went into the temple, and began to cast out 
them that sold therein, and them that bought, 
saying unto them, It is written, my house is the 
house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of 
thieves. And he taught daily in the temple, 
Luke xix. 45, 46, 47. It is jwritten of the 
apostles, That when they had seen Christ ascend 
to Heaven, they worshipped him, and returned to 
Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually 
in the temple praising and blessing God, Luke 
xxiv. 52, 53. It is written of all the disciples, 
That they continuing daily in the temple, and 
breaking bread from house to house, did eat their 
meat with gladness and singleness of heart, prais* 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 29 

ing God and having favor with all the people , 
Acts ii. 46, 47. It is written particularly of 
St. Paul, That when he was come to Jeru- 
salem, even while he was praying in the temple, 
he was in a trance, Acts xxii. 17. And it is 
written here of St. Peter and St. John, That 
they went up together into the temple at the hour 
of prayer. 

But wherefore are these things written, but 
for our admonition ; to teach us that it is God's 
will and pleasure that we should perform pub- 
lic devotions to him, in places dedicated to his 
service, and set apart wholly for that purpose ? 
Such as the temple was at Jerusalem, which 
therefore was called a house of prayer by God 
himself Isa. lvi. 7. Luke xix. 46. Yea, his 
house of prayer. And I will make them joy- 
ful, saith he, in my house of prayer, Isa. lvi. 
7, which plainly shows both that prayer was 
the most proper work of that house, and also 
that house the most proper place for prayer ; 
as being his own house, where he himself was 



30 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

pleased in a more especial manner to reside, 
and to distribute his blessings among those who 
there prayed unto him for them. Hence, 
whatsoever was done in this house, is said to be 
done before God, as there specially present, 
Eccl. v. 1, 2. Jer. vii. 10, &c, and when our 
blessed Lord in his infancy was first brought to 
the temple, it is said, They brought him thither 
to present him to the Lord, Luke ii. 22. Where 
we may observe by the way that this one 
place of Scripture duly considered, would be 
sufficient to persuade all Christian parents to 
have their children baptized, not in their own 
but in God's house, that they-may be there 
presented to the Lord, as Christ was, and so 
receive his blessing, according to the prayers 
which are there made for them in God's own 
house, in his house of prayer, where he himself 
hath promised to meet with them, and to bless them, 
Exod. xx. 24. By virtue of which promise the 
people of God in all ages have found their com- 
mon and public prayers to be the most effectual. 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 31 

There they have greater assistances of God's 
Holy Spirit, stronger assurances of his love 
and favor to them, a clearer sight of his glory 
and goodness, and a deeper sense of his special 
presence with them, grounded upon their be- 
lief of that remarkable saying of our blessed 
Saviour, Where two or three are gathered togeth- 
er in my name, there am I in the midst of them, 
Matthew xviii. 20. He doth not only promise 
that he will be there, but he positively asserts, 
that he will be there in the midst of them ; 
which they who meet together in his name, 
cannot but believe, with such a faith, as is the 
evidence of things not seen, Heb. xi. 1, and 
therefore by it, they see him there, as really as 
they see themselves, or one another. And 
this is that which makes them so desirous of 
being in such places, as we see in David, say- 
ing, O God, thou art my God, early will I seek 
thee ; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh long- 
elh after thee in a dry and thirsty land, where 
no water is, to see thy power and thy glory, so as 



32 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

I have seen thee in the sanctuary, Psal. lxxiii. 1, 
2. It seems, he had seen God in the sanctu- 
ary, or holy place, and therefore longs to go 
thither again, not doubting but if he was there, 
he should see God again as he used to do. 
And so do all his faithful people. They see 
him there by faith in his word ; they see him 
by the light of his countenance, which he lifts 
up there upon them. They see him shining 
forth in his glory, and manifesting himself and 
his goodness to them in hearing the prayers, 
and accepting the praises they offer to him in 
his name, who is in the midst of them, and 
hath promised, that whatsoever they shall ask 
the Father in his name, he ivill give it. John 
xvi. 23. 

These things, I confess, may seem strange to 
some, especially to such as have not made trial 
of them ; but they, who have accustomed them- 
selves to perform their public devotions to Al- 
mighty God, with that intention of mind, with 
that earnestness of desire, with that faith, with 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 33 

that reverence and humility as they ought ; they 
know that all which I have said comes far short 
of what they sometimes experience. Be sure, 
it was not for nothing, that the apostles in my 
text, went up to the temple at the hour of pray- 
er to pray there ; as all devout people that 
dwelt thereabout were wont to do. And they 
also that would but seem to be so ; as appears 
from our Saviour's parable, where he saith, 
two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a 
Pharisee, the other a Publican, Luke xviii. 10. 
For this shows, that not only they, but Christ 
himself, esteemed that the most proper place for 
prayer. 

I say the most, not the only proper place. It 
was at the temple only, that all the sacrifices 
were offered, which typified and represented 
the death of Christ, by whom alone our prayers 
are heard, and our duties accepted. And there- 
fore, that was the most proper place for all that 
lived near it, and could go thither, to perform 
their daily devotions, because there they had the 



34 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

most sensible occasions given for the exercise 
of their faith in Christ, there typically repre- 
sented before their eyes, as dying for their sins, 
and as making intercession for them, with the 
incense of his own merits. But, nevertheless, 
there were many other places appointed for pub- 
lic prayers, which were called synagogues. 
There were reckoned at one time, above four 
hundred in Jerusalem itself, and several others 
in every city of Judea, and wheresoever else 
any Jews dwelt ; so that in every place where 
there were ten considerable Jews together, they 
were bound to have a synagogue ; which were 
therefore as so many parish churches, belong- 
ing to the temple, as the cathedral ; or rather 
they were as our chapels of ease, to the moth- 
er church. For as there are many parishes in 
England, where there are several chapels of 
ease, where people may perform their public 
prayers, but they are bound to go to the moth- 
er-church to receive the Holy Sacrament. So 
notwithstanding the many Synagogues which 



PUBLIC PRAYER. . 35 

they had in all the parts of their kingdom, the 
Jews were to offer their sacrifices only at the 
temple. And therefore, that was properly the 
metropolitical, or mother-church : and all the 
synagogues, far and near, were members of that, 
and as such, were Houses of God, and Houses 
of Prayer, as that was. And the prayers which 
were made in them, were as acceptable to God, 
as those which were made in the temple itself. 

There were such places as these in David's 
time : For he, speaking prophetically of the 
destruction of that nation, saith, They have burnt 
up all the synagogues, or Houses of God, in the 
land, Psal. lxxiv. 8. 

To the same purpose is that of the prophet 
Jeremiah, He hath violently taken away his 
tabernacle, as if it were a garden ; he hath 
destroyed his places of the assembly, Lam. ii. 6. 
In botlvwhich places, we see God's propriety 
asserted in these synagogues, as well as in the 
temple. They are called the Houses of God, 
and his places of assembly. The original word 



36 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

in both places is the same that is used for the 
tabernacle of the congregation, or the tabernacle 
of meeting, as the word signifies, so called, not 
only because the people met there, but chiefly 
because God met there with the people, as God 
himself assures us ; saying, In the tabernacle of 
the congregation, or meeting, where I will meet 
with thee, Exod. xxx. 36, vid. chap. xxv. 22, 
chap. xxix. 42. From whence it appears, that 
these synagogues also, as called by the same 
name, were places where God met with his 
people, and bestowed his blessings upon them. 
And that is the reason, that the Prophets com- 
plain so much of this, as one of the greatest 
calamities that could befal a nation, that the 
Houses of God should be burned and destroyed ; 
so that they had no such public and solemn 
places left, where they could meet with him. 
Hence also it was, that the Jews esteemed the 
building a synagogue, to be so good a work, 
and so great a kindness to them, as appears 
from their elders commending the Centurion to 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 37 

our Saviour, as a person worthy of his favor 
upon that account ; for, say they, he loveth our 
nation, and he hath built us a synagogue, Luke 
vii. 5. And hence lastly it is, that we so often 
read in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, 
that Christ himself and his Apostles went as 
constantly into the synagogues, when they were 
in the country, as they went to the temple, 
when they were at Jerusalem. Those being 
the most proper places, not only for prayer, but 
likewise for the preaching and hearing God's 
holy word, w T hieh was read in the synagogues, 
every Sabbath Day, Acts xv. 21. 

These things I thought good to put you in 
mind of at this time, that you might know how 
great a value the church and people of God, in 
ancient times, set upon places devoted to him, 
and might learn thence to do so too : for our 
churches now are as solemnly dedicated to the 
service of God, and therefore are as much his 
houses, his houses of prayer, as ever the Jew- 
ish synagogues were, or the temple itself. The 



38 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

very name church in Greek, from whence it 
comes, signifies the Lord's House. And it can- 
not be imagined by any Christian, but that God 
hath as much propriety in, and as much re- 
pect unto, his houses now as he ever had. It 
is true, we have not such sacrifices offered in 
our churches, as were in the temple ; but we 
have one which answers the ends of all these 
sacrifices, and far exceeds them all together, 
even the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in- 
stituted and celebrated in memory of the death 
of the Lamb of God, which by the legal sacri- 
fices was only fore-showed and typified. And 
whereas then sacrifices were offered onlym one 
place, at the temple in Jerusalem, not in any of 
their synagogues. The holy sacrament of 
Christ's body and blood is administered not only 
in our cathedrals, but in all our parish churches. 
And it being only by virtue of that blood which 
was only typified in theirs, but is commemorated 
in our churches, that our prayers are heard, 
our services accepted, or any of God's promises 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 39 

are ever fulfilled to us ; we cannot doubt but 
that all the promises which he made of meet- 
ing and blessing his people in such places, were 
intended for, and belong to us and to our 
churches, as much as ever they did to any : 
and by consequence that it is both our duty and 
interest to go to our respective churches as the 
two great Apostles did to the temple at the 
hour of prayer. 

And that is the other thing which! promised 
to consider in these words, the time when these 
Apostles went up together into the temple, they 
went at the hour of prayer , being the ninth hour : 
that is, at three o'clock in the afternoon : For 
the Jews divided the day from sun-rising to sun- 
setting into twelve hours, John xi. 9, and there- 
fore, according to their account, the time of the 
sun's rising about six o'clock was their first 
hour : their third hour was our nine o'clock in 
the morning : and their ninth, our third in the 
afternoon. And these two last, even the third 
and the ninth hours, or according to our ac- 



40 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

count nine in the morning and three in the af- 
ternoon, were their constant hours of prayer 
every day in the year. But to understand how 
they came to be so, we must first observe, that 
in the old law, God commanded two Lambs to 
be offered upon the altar every day as a con- 
tinual burnt-offering : The one Lamb, saith he, 
thou shalt offer in the morning, and the other 
Lamb thou shah offer at evening, Exod. xxix. 
39, Numb, xxviii. 4, or as it is in the Hebrew, 
between the two evenings, or about the midst 
between noon and sun-set, which was accord- 
ing to their reckoning the ninth hour. This we 
may learn from Josephus, the best Jewish writ- 
er that is extant, where he saith that the solemn 
sacrifices were offered twice a day, ngcot re xal 
Ttsql yaTr\v &gav y in the morning, Josephus An- 
tiq. 1. 14. c. 8. And so the Talmudists tell us, 
that the daily evening sacrifice was killed at 
half an hour past eight, and offered upon the 
altar after nine. These, therefore, were the 
two set hours for the continual burnt offerings 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 41 

every day, three in the morning, which is our 
nine, and nine, which is our three in the after- 
noon. 

These two hours being appointed by God 
himself for the daily sacrifice, there was doubt- 
less great reason for it, which seems to be this : 
these, as all the bloody sacrifices, were offered 
up only as types and representatives of that 
grand sacrifice which Christ, the Lamb of God, 
was to offer for the sins of the world: and 
therefore they were appointed at the same 
hours wherein his death was begun, as I may 
so speak, and finished. About the third hour, 
or nine in the morning, he was delivered to 
Pilate, accused, examined and condemned to 
die, and therefore the morning sacrifice was ap- 
pointed at that hour. About the sixth hour, 
or noon, this Lamb of God was laid upon the 
altar of the cross, and at the ninth hour expir- 
ed; as we learn from St. Matthew, saying, 
11 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness 
over all the land unto the ninth hour: and 



42 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud 
voice, Eli, Eli, Lama sabacthani, my God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me ! and having 
cried again with a loud voice, he yielded up 
the ghost," Matt, xxvii. 45, 46, 50. And this 
I verily believe was the reason that the evening 
sacrifice every day was appointed to be offered 
up at the ninth hour, that so the very time of 
Christ's suffering might be fore-shown and typi- 
fied by it, as the place also was ; it being abso- 
lutely forbidden to offer up any such sacrifices 
after the temple was built, anywhere else but 
only at Jerusalem where Christ was to suffer. 

Now to bring this nearer to our present pur- 
pose, we must farther observe, that in all these 
continual burnt-offerings, when the Lamb was 
laid upon the altar, a priest with a censer took 
some of the coals from off that altar, and car- 
ried them into the holy place, where he put 
incense upon them, and so offered it upon the 
golden altar before the veil, made for that pur- 
pose. This took up some considerable time, 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 43 

usually about half an hour : all which time the 
people were at their devotions, worshipping, and 
praying and praising God ; as appears from St. 
Luke himself, who, speaking of Zacharias, the 
father of St. John the Baptist, saying, According 
to the custom of the Priest's office, his lot was to 
burn incense when he went into the temple of the 
Lord. And the whole multitude of the people 
were praying without at the time of incense, 
Luke i. 9, 10. This, therefore, was their time of 
prayer : And it was the most proper time that 
could be for it, while the Lamb was burning 
upon the altar without, as a type of the death 
of Christ, and the sweet incense was burning 
within the holy place, upon coals taken from 
thence, to put them in mind of his intercession 
which he makes by virtue of that death he suf- 
fered for them, that their prayers might be 
heard, and their services accepted before God. 
All which was represented in a vision to St. 
John, when he saw seven Angels which stood be- 
fore God: and another Angel (which was Christ 



44 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

the Mediator) came and stood at the altar, hav- 
ing a golden censer, and there was given unto 
him much incense, that he should offer it with 
the prayers of all Saints upon the golden altar 
which was before the throne. And the smoke of 
the incense,- which came with the prayers of the 
Saints, ascended up before God out of the AngeVs 
hand, Rev. viii. 3, 4. 

For hereby is plainly signified, that God 
smells a sweet savor in the prayers of his peo- 
ple, or accepts of them, only upon the account 
of the merits of the death of Jesus Christ, the 
Angel of the covenant, and by means of his 
mediation for them, typified by the sweet in- 
cense burning upon coals taken from the altar 
whereupon the Lamb was offered, at the same 
time that the people were at their devotions, 
and so ascending up together with them into 
Heaven, and there rendering them acceptable 
unto God. The same is intimated also by St. 
Peter, where speaking to the saints of God, he 
saith, Ye also as lively stones are built up a 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 45 

spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up 
spiritual sacrifice, acceptable to God by Jesus 
Christ, 1 Pet. ii. 5. Whereas our prayers and 
the other services which we perform to him, 
are called sacrifices, in allusion to, but spiritual, 
to distinguish them from, those under the law ; 
so they are said to be acceptable to God, not in 
themselves, but by Jesus Christ : by Jesus 
Christ perfuming them with the spiritual in- 
cense of his own merits, and so making them a 
sweet savor to the Lord, as it was typically 
expressed in the law, Lev. i. 9, &c. 

By this, therefore, we may see how the third 
and ninth hours of the day, or as we speak, nine 
in the morning and three in the afternoon, came 
to be their chief set hours for prayer every 
day; even because at these hours the daily 
sacrifices were offered, and the holy incense 
burnt, as types of Christ's death and interces- 
sion, whereby alone their prayers could go up 
as a memorial before God, and be well-pleasing 
to him. For this cause, therefore, these were 



46 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

their constant hours of prayer, not only at the 
temple in Jerusalem, but in their synagogues 
also all the country over, devout people daily 
resorting thither at the said hours to perform 
their devotions, that so they might both keep 
up their communion with the Church at Jeru- 
salem, and likewise communicate in the sacrifi- 
ces and incense, which were there offered at 
these hours, or rather in what was signified by 
them for God's acceptance of what they did. 
But they who dwell at Jerusalem, usually went 
to the temple itself, at the foresaid hours. And 
that is the reason that there were so many 
gathered together there upon the day of Pente- 
cost, at the third hour of the day, as St. Peter 
saith, Acts ii. 15. That three thousand of them 
were converted to the faith of Christ, Acts. ii. 41. 
And there were as many or more there at the ninth 
hour, when St. Peter and St. John went thither 
together, as appears in that there were above five 
thousand at that time converted, Acts iv. 4. 
But how many soever were there besides, be 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



47 



sure these two great Apostles went together 
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the 
ninth hour : not now out of any respect to the 
sacrifices which were still continued to be of- 
fered by the unbelieving Jews. For the Apos- 
tles knew well enough, that all the laws about 
them expired upon the death of Christ . 

So that now all such sacrifices could signify 
nothing at all. But they went to the temple, 
as it was a house of prayer, and a duty that 
always was and always must be performed 
unto God. And they went at the ninth hour, 
because it was the hour of prayer. It had been 
so for many ages, and there was no reason why 
it should be now laid aside, God himself had 
appointed it for the time of the evening sacri- 
fice, because Christ, the grand sacrifice of the 
world, was to be offered up at that time. And 
though the virtue of the legal sacrifice was now 
ceased, yet the reason why that time was ap- 
pointed for it still continued. There being as 
much reason why Christ's death should be 



48 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

commemorated by our Christian sacrifice, as 
there was that it should be foreshown and typi- 
fied by the legal, about the time it happened. 
At least, there was no reason to the contrary. 
And therefore, that being the usual time for 
public prayers in the place where they then 
were, they went up together into the temple 
at that hour to perform their devotions. And 
it is left upon record that they did so, as I ob- 
served before, on purpose that the Church, in 
all ages, might learn by their example to set 
apart some certain times every day in the year 
for public prayer. And accordingly as the 
Jewish church had, by God's own appointment, 
the morning and evening sacrifice every day in 
the year : so all Christian churches have been 
used to have their morning and evening prayers 
publicly performed every day. As might easily 
be shown out of the records of the church from 
the beginning of Christianity. 

Not to insist upon other churches, I shall 
instance at present only in our own, which, as 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



49 



in all things else, so particularly in this, is ex- 
actly conformable to the Catholic and Apostolic 
Church. In the first book of common prayer 
made by our church at the beginning of the 
Reformation, there was a form composed both 
for morning and evening prayer ; the title for 
that of the morning ran thus, An order for Ma- 
tins daily through the year; and of that for the 
evening, An order for Even-song throughout the 
year ; and accordingly there were psalms and 
chapters appointed both for the morning and 
evening of every day. About three or four 
years after, the same book was revised and put 
forth again. And then the church taking no- 
tice that daily prayers had been in some 
places neglected, at the end of the preface she 
added two new rules, or, as we may call them, 
Kubricks, which are still in force, as ye may 
see in the common prayer-books which we 
now use. 

The first is this : 

And all Priests and Deacons are to say daily 

— <„ , — — — — 



50 PUBLIC PRATER. 

the morning and evening prayer , either privately 
or openly , not being let by sickness, or other ur- 
gent cause. 

By this every one that is admitted into holy 
orders, although he be neither Parson, Vicar, 
nor Curate of any particular place, yet he is 
bound to say both morning and evening prayer 
every day, either in some church or chapel 
where he can get leave to do it, or else in the 
house where he dwells, except he be hindered 
by some such cause which the ordinary of the 
place judges to be reasonable and urgent. 

The other order is this^ 

And the Curate that ministereth in every par- 
ish church or chapel, being at home, and not 
being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the 
same in the parish church or chapel where he 
ministereth, and shall cause a bell to be tolled 
thereunto, a convenient time before he begin, that 
people may come to hear God's word and pray 
with him. 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 51 

Here we have a plain and express com- 
mand, that the Curate, whether he be the in- 
cumbent himself, or another procured by him 
to do it ; whosoever it is that ministereth 
God's holy word and sacraments in any parish 
church or chapel in England, shall say the 
same morning and evening prayer daily in the 
parish church or chapel where he ministereth, 
and shall take care that a bell be tolled a con- 
venient time before he begins, that people hav- 
ing notice of it may come to God's house to 
hear his holy word read, and to join with the 
Minister in performing their public devotions 
to him. This every Minister or Curate in 
England is bound to do every day in the year, 
if he be at home, and be not otherwise reason- 
ably hindered. And whether any hindrance be 
reasonable or no, the Minister himself is not 
the ordinary judge : for in all such cases that is 
referred by the common laws of the church to 
the Bishop of the diocese, or the ordinary of 
the place where he ministereth. 



52 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

The law hath made this the duty of every 
Minister, and the Bishop or Ordinary is to see 
he doth it ; and whether any have reasonable 
cause ever to omit it, or whether the cause 
they pretend for it, be reasonable or no. This 
is left by the law to him. He may allow or 
disallow of the pretence as he upon the full 
hearing of it sees good : and may punish with 
the censures of the Church any Minister within 
his jurisdiction that doth not read the prayers 
of the Church, or take care they be read, every 
morning and evening in the year, except at 
such times when the Minister can prove that 
he had such a reasonable hindrance or impedi- 
ment as will justify him before God and the 
Church. 

This care hath our Church taken, that pub- 
lic prayers be read every morning and evening 
throughout the year in every parish within her 
bounds, that all who live in her communion, 
may, after the example of the Apostles in my 
text, go every day into the temple or church 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 53 

at the hour of prayer. She hath not appointed 
the hour when either morning or evening 
prayer shall begin : because the same hour 
might not be so convenient in all places : so 
that in some places it might be pretended 
that there was a reasonable hindrance, that it 
could not be done just at the time. Wherefore 
to prevent any such plea, and to make the duty 
as easy and practicable, both to the Minister 
and the people, as it could be, the Church hath 
left that to the Ministers themselves, who con- 
sidering every one his own and his people's cir- 
cumstances, may and ought to appoint such 
hours, both for morning and evening prayer in 
their respective places, as they in their discre- 
tion shall judge to be most convenient. Only 
they ought to take care in general that morn- 
ing prayers be always read before, and the 
evening after noon. And it is very expedient, 
that the same hours be every day, as much as 
it is possible, observed in the same place, that 
people knowing it beforehand, may order their 



54 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

affairs so as to be ready to go to the church at 
the hour of prayer. 

But notwithstanding this great care that our 
Church hath taken to have daily prayers in 
every parish, we see by sad experience they 
are shamefully neglected all the kingdom over ; 
there being very few places where they have 
any public prayers upon the week days, ex- 
cept perhaps upon Wednesdays and Fridays, 
because it is expressly commanded that the 
Litany be read upon those days ; but it is as 
expressly commanded that both Morning and 
Evening Prayers be read every day in the 
week, as the Litany upon those. And why 
this commandment should be neglected more 
than the other, for my part I can see no reason. 
But I can see plain enough that it is a great fault, 
a plain breach of the known laws of Christ's 
Holy Catholic Church, and particularly of that 
part of it which by his blessing is settled among 
us. But where doth this fault lie ? I hope 
not in the Clergy. For I dare not suppose or 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



55 



imagine, but that every Minister in England, 
that hath the care of souls committed to him, 
would be willing and glad to read the prayers 
every day, for their edification, if the people 
could be persuaded to come to them. I am 
sure there is never a minister but is obliged to 
read them daily ; and never a parish in Eng- 
land but where the people may have them so 
read, if they will ; for they may require it by 
the laws both of our Church and State, except 
at such times when their minister is reasonably 
hindered from the execution of his office in the 
sense before explained. 

But the mischief is, men cannot, or rather 
will not, be persuaded to it. They think it a 
great matter to come to Church upon the Lord's 
day, when they cannot openly follow their par- 
ticular callings if they would. Upon other 
days they have other business to mind, of 
greater consequence, as they think, than going 
to prayers. To some it is a great disturbance 
to hear the bell sounding in their ears, and 



56 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

calling them to their duty, which they being 
resolved not to practise, it makes them very 
uneasy to be so often put in mind of it. Others 
can make a shift to bear that pretty well, 
as not looking upon themselves as concerned 
in it. For they take it for granted that prayers 
w r ere intended only for such as have nothing 
else to do. As for their parts, they have a 
great deal of work upon their hands, and must 
mind that without troubling their heads about 
anything else. This is the plain case of some ; 
but not of all. Blessed be God he hath opened 
the eyes of many, especially in this city, 
who now see the things thatjbelong to their 
everlasting peace, and therefore are as constant 
at their public devotions, as they are at their 
private business. And I trust in his infinite 
goodness and mercy, that he who hath begun 
so good a work among us, will one day perfect 
it, that we may all meet together with one 
heart and with one mouth to pray unto him, 
and praise and glorify his great name every 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 57 

day in the week, both in this city, and all the 
kingdom over. What a happy city, what a 
glorious kingdom, would it then be ? And how 
happy should I think myself if it should please 
God to make me, the unworthiest of all his 
servants, an instrument in his almighty hand 
towards the effecting of it in this place 1 It is 
too great a felicity for me to flatter myself with 
the least hopes of. Howsoever I must do my 
duty, and leave the issue to him who hath the 
hearts of all men in his hand. And therefore 
in his name shall lay some such plan and ob- 
vious considerations before you, which I hope, 
by his blessing, may prevail upon all here pre- 
sent to follow the holy Apostles in my text, in 
going together into the house of God at the hour 
of prayer. 

For this purpose I might first show the ex- 
cellency and usefulness of the prayers which 
our Church hath appointed to be read every 
Morning and Evening. But having already 
offered something towards that upon another 



58 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

occasion, I shall here only premise in general, 
that they are such, both for the language, the 
matter, the method, and the manner of per- 
forming them, that, to speak with the least, 
there never was, that we know of, nor is at 
this day, a better or more proper form of pub- 
lic devotions prescribed and used in any part 
of Christ's Church militant here upon earth : 
there being nothing wanting in them, that can 
any way conduce to the ends for which they 
are designed even to the setting forth of God's 
glory and to the edifying of his people. There 
we confess our sins to God, and have his par- 
don and absolution of them declared to us, 
being penitent, by one of his own Ministers. 
There we praise and magnify his glorious 
name in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. 
There we have some part of his holy word 
read, and so his divine will made known to us. 
There we pray for all things necessary both for 
life and godliness ; for whatsoever we can 
want or desire to make us happy in this world 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



59 



and the next. And all this we there do in 
such a solemn and reverend manner as becomes 
the work we are about : insomuch that if it be 
not our own fault, we can never go to church, 
but we shall return better than we went. 
Which if all people were but as sensible of as 
some are, we should not need to use any argu- 
ments to persuade them to frequent our public 
prayers as oft as possibly they can. But it is 
impossible they should ever know what advan- 
tage it would be to them unless they first make 
trial of it. 

Which therefore that I may, by God's assist- 
ance, persuade all here present for the future 
to do, I desire you to consider first, that he him- 
self that made you, hath sufficiently declared it 
to be his w ill and pleasure that you should per- 
form public devotions to him twice a day, morn- 
ing and evening , in that he expressly required 
and commanded his ancient church and people, 
the children of Israel, to do so. For, as I have 
shown, he commanded them to sacrifice two 



60 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

lambs every day, one in the morning, and the 
other in the evening, or afternoon : which was 
the same in effect, as to command them to per- 
form their public devotions to him twice every 
day. For such were the sacrifices unto them. 
Not only because, by offering up such sacrifices 
to him in obedience to his command, they pub- 
licly acknowledged his supreme authority and 
power over all things ; but likewise, because, 
together with their sacrifices, they always offer- 
ed up, as they were bound, their prayers and 
praises to him. For they never sacrificed, but 
they prayed at the same time, and esteemed no 
prayers so effectual as those which were joined 
with sacrifices ; as appears from several places 
of Scripture where we read, that Abraham built 
an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name 
of the Lord, Gen. xii. 7. And so did Isaac, 
chap. xxvi. 25. He first built an altar, where- 
on to offer his sacrifice, and then prayed. And 
of Samuel it is said, that he took a sucking lamb, 
and offered it for a burnt-offering wholly unto the 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



61 



Lord; and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, 
and the Lord heard him, 1 Samuel vii. 9. And 
when Samuel had blamed Saul for offering a 
burnt-offering before the time that he came to 
him, according to his promise, Saul, to excuse 
himself, said, I said the Philistians will come down 
now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made my 
supplication unto the Lord. I forced myself 
therefore and offered a burnt-offering, 1 Samuel 
xiii. 12, where he speaks as if offering his sac- 
rifice, and making his supplication unto the Lord, 
was one and the same thing ; not that it was so 
in itself, as some have thought, but because that 
sacrifice was so necessary to make his prayer 
acceptable unto God, that he could not do one 
without the other ; he could not pray, as he 
thought, effectually, without a burnt-offering. 
There are many such places in the Old Testa- 
ment, from whence it might be proved, that sac- 
rifices and prayers always went together, nei- 
ther are there some wanting in the New. As 
in the place which I mentioned before upon 



62 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

another occasion, where it is said, that the whole 
multitude of the people were praying without at 
the time of incense , Luke i. 10. For the time 
of incense was, while the sacrifice was burning 
upon the altar, and therefore that was the time 
of their public prayers. But I need not have 
gone from my text, to have proved this. For 
the ninth hour is here called the hour of prayer ; 
but that, as I have proved already, was the hour 
of the evening sacrifice, which puts it beyond 
all doubt, that their daily sacrifices were always 
accompanied in course with public prayers and 
devotions. And that is why the temple, where the 
sacrifices were offered, was called an house of 
prayer, as well as house of sacrifice, 2 Sam. vii. 
12. Yea, it is much oftener called by that 
name, than it is by this ; prayer being the duty 
principally required there, and sacrifice only for 
the sake of that, to make way for it to go up 
as a memorial before God, and to be well- 
pleasing unto him ; not as if there was any such 
virtue in the blood of a lamb, or in flesh smok- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



63 



ing upon the altar, but by means of the typical 
relation which it had to Christ, the lamb of God, 
which taketh away the sins of the world; by 
whom alone our prayers are acceptable unto 
God, as I observed before. 

Wherefore, seeing God was pleased to com- 
mand that sacrifices should be offered twice a 
day, to accompany and assist his people's devo- 
tions ; there was plainly something moral as 
well as Levitical, in that command. As it re- 
spected the sacrifices, it was purely Leviticaly 
and therefore to cease at our Saviour's death ; 
but as it respected the people's devotions, it 
was moral, and of perpetual obligation. Peo- 
ple always were, and always will be, bound to 
offer up their prayers and thanksgivings unto 
God ; and this, as being a moral duty, was even 
in those days reckoned the more acceptable 
sacrifice of the two. I will praise the name of 
Gody saith David, with a song, and will magni- 
fy him with thanksgiving ; this also shall please 
the Lord, better than an ox or bullock that hath 



64 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

horns and hoofs, Psal. lxix. 30, 31. And 
therefore, when God commanded the less, it 
cannot be imagined but that he required the 
more principal duty, even public prayers and 
praises to be offered to him twice a day ; as 
the Jews plainly understood it. As appears, 
in that they had their daily prayers as con- 
stantly as they had their daily sacrifices, and 
that too at the same times when God com- 
manded them to be offered, even every morn- 
ing and evening : which they would not have 
had, if they had not looked upon themselves 
as obliged by that command to pray as well as 
to sacrifice at those times. 

But surely, to pray to God, and to praise 
his holy name, which make up our public de- 
votions, is a duty as much incumbent upon 
Christians as ever it was upon the Jews. It is 
our only sacrifice which we offer unto God in 
the name of his son : By him therefore, saith 
the Apostle, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to 
God continually, that is the fruit of oar lips, giv- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



65 



ing thanks to his name, Heb. xiii. 15. This is 
now to be our continual sacrifice, and though 
we do not offer up a lamb to God, together 
with our devotions every day, yet we present 
that to him which is of more worth and value, 
than what the Jews offered. They presented 
the shadow, we the substance : they offered a 
lamb, as a type of Christ to come, we offer up 
our prayers to God, in the name of Christ him- 
self, as already sacrificed for us, and as pre- 
senting our prayers to his Father with the in- 
cense of his own merits. Whilst they prayed, 
Christ's death and intercession for them were 
only typically represented by a Lamb burning 
upon one, and incense upon another altar. But 
in all our prayers we actually name Him, as 
the person by whose alone merits, and media- 
tions, our prayers can be accepted ; concluding 
every collect, with saying, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord, or something to that purpose. 

By which means, we have better ground, and 
clearer occasion also given us to trust in God 



66 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

for his acceptance of our devotions than they 
had ; and therefore ought certainly to be as 
constant as they were in the performance of 
them, otherwise we can expect no other, but 
that they will rise up against us in judgment at 
the last day ; neither do I see what we can 
answer or plead for ourselves. For God hav- 
ing once commanded, that sacrifices should be 
offered to him every morning and evening in 
the year ; he thereby plainly signified, that it 
is his divine will and pleasure, that his people 
in all ages should do something twice every 
day, whereby to make their public acknow- 
ledgments of his absolute dominion over them ; 
and of his infinite goodness and mercy to them. 
But, this we cannot do now any other way, but 
by praying to him, and praising and magnifying 
his most glorious name, in a public and solemn 
manner, which we are therefore doubtless 
bound to do, or at least to take all opportuni- 
ties that we can get of doing it twice every 
day. 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



67 



And indeed, Christ himself doth in effect re- 
quire the same thing of us *, for, that it is his 
pleasure, that we should constantly use that 
form of prayer, which he as our great Lord and 
Master was pleased to compose for all his dis- 
ciples, is so plain, that I wonder how any can 
doubt of it ; there being no command in all the 
Bible more plain than that, when ye pray, say. 
Our Father , which art in heaven, fyc. Luke ii .2. 
Bni it is as plain, that he designed this prayer 
should be used publicly and in common by his 
disciples, when met together in their public 
assemblies. In that he hath drawn it up all 
along in the plural number, that many may join 
together in it, and say, " Our Father, which 
art in heaven. Give us this day our daily 
bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we for- 
give them that trespass against us, and lead us 
not into teniptation, but deliver us from evil." 
So that there is> not one petition, nor one ex- 
pression in it, but what a whole congregation 
may jointly use. From whence St. Cyprian 



68 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

truly observed, that this is publica et communis 
oratio, a public and common prayer. Not but 
that it may, and ought to be also used private- 
ly by every single Christian apart by himself ; 
because every Christian is a member of Christ's 
Catholic Church, and should pray as such in 
private, as well as in public ; and for all his 
fellow members as well as for himself, they 
being all but one body. But however, it must 
be acknowledged, that being so exactly fitted 
to a public congregation, it was primarily and 
chiefly intended for that purpose. And that 
our Saviour would have us say this prayer 
every day, appears most plainly from that peti- 
tion in it, Give us this day our daily bread. 
For this shows, that as we depend upon God 
every day for our necessary food, so we ought 
to pray unto him every day for it. And if we 
must put up this petition every day, we must 
put up all the rest with it. .For Christ hath 
joined them all together, and therefore we must 
not put them asunder. Neither is there any 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 69 

part of the prayer, but what is as necessary to 
be said every day as this. 

Wherefore, seeing our blessed Saviour him- 
self was most graciously pleased to compose 
this prayer, so as to suit it to our daily public 
devotions, and hath plainly commanded us to 
use it, according as he had composed it ; we 
may reasonably from thence infer, that it is his 
Divine will and pleasure, that we should pub- 
licly pray to our heavenly Father every day, as 
his church had all along before done it, morning 
and evening. Be sure his Apostles thought so 
when they had received his Holy Spirit to lead 
them, according to his promise, into all truth, 
and to bring into their remembrance all things 
that he had said unto them. For after the day 
of Pentecost, on which the Holy Ghost came 
upon them, the next news that we hear of any 
of them, is, that Peter and John went up togeth- 
er into the temple at the hour of prayer, being 
the ninth hour, or the hour of Evening prayer ; 
which they would not have done if they had 



70 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

not believed it to be agreeable to the doctrine" 
which he had taught them. 

And if there was no divine revelation for it, 
our natural reason might teach us the same 
thing. For, seeing we depend continually 
upon God, and every day receive fresh mercies 
from him ; there is all the reason in the world, 
that w r e should every day, some way or other, 
testify our acknowledgment that we do so. 
For that is all that we can do to him, for all 
that he does for us. We cannot give him any- 
thing, for we have nothing but what he gives 
us. And therefore he expects nothing from 
us, for all the favors he is pleased to show us, 
but only to own that they come from him, 
and to show we do so, by all such means and 
methods, as he for that purpose hath prescribed 
to us. Of which, the performance of public 
devotions was always reckoned the most plain 
and proper. I say public, for what we do in 
private, none in the world knows but God, and 
ourselves. But by performing our public de- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 71 

votions to him, we demonstrate to the world, 
that we believe and acknowledge, that he is 
the supreme governor and disposer of all things 
in it, that it is in him we live, and move, and 
have our being ; and that we neither have, 
nor can have anything, but what we receive 
from him. By our praising him for what we 
have, we own that it was he who gave it ; and 
by praying to him for what we want, we own 
that it is he alone who can give it to us. And 
by doing this publicly, we show that we are 
not ashamed to own it, nor care if all the 
world knows that we have nothing of our own ; 
nothing but what we received from Grod, and 
wish that all others would join with us, and 
assist us in praising of him, and in praying to 
him, both for themselves, and for us too. This 
is properly to serve God, and glorify him in 
the world : the great work we were made for, 
and for which we are still supported and main- 
tained by him. So that by this means we may 
so far answer the end of our creation, and the 



12 PUBLIC TRAYER. 

end of all his goodness and mercies to us. For 
he made all things for himself ai first, Prov. xvi. 
4. And he still doth all things for himself, 
even for his own glory. And we accordingly 
set forth his glory in all our public devotions ; 
by owning him publicly for our great and con- 
tinual benefactor, by recounting the glorious 
works that he hath done for us, and supplicat- 
ing for all the good things that we can ever 
have : and so ascribing the glory of all to him. 
And therefore we ought in reason to perform 
such devotions as often as we can. We are 
bound to do it, by all those reasons which 
oblige us to serve God that made us, and to do 
the work which he sent us into the world 
about. For that, this is properly the serving 
of God, or as we therefore call it, "Divine 
Service ;" the Holy Ghost himself testifies, 
where speaking of "Anna the Prophetess," he 
saith, "that she departed not from the temple, 
but served God with fasting and prayer, night 
and day," Luke ii. 37, that is, as she constant- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 73 

ly kept the fasts of the church, so she as con- 
stantly went to the temple at the hour of prayer , 
both evening and morning ; and there performed 
her devotions. And if we would have the 
same testimony that she had, even, that we 
serve God, we must endeavor all we can to 
follow her pious example, as we see the Apos- 
tles in my text did, by going into the Temple , 
or the House of God, at the hour of prayer. 

And, as this is much for the honor of God, so 
it is also for the honor of Christ, and that holy 
religion which he hath planted upon earth ; 
which, though it be the best, or rather the only 
true religion professed in the world, yet it can- 
not appear to be so any other way, than by the 
lives and actions of those who profess it ; and 
particularly by the frequency of their public 
devotions to the supreme governor of the world. 
If they who profess the Christian religion come 
short of other people in this, it would be a great 
reflection upon the founder of it. For it would 
seem to intimate, as if his religion had not that 



74 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

power upon the minds of men as others have, 
nor answered the end and notion of religion in 
general, even the glorifying Almighty God, so 
well as others do. But there are no people 
upon earth, we know of, who have any sense 
of religion at all but they do something or 
other every day, whereby to. express it, and to 
show the great esteem and respect they have 
for the God they worship. 

The Mahometans, although their religion be 
grounded upon mere imposture, yet notwith- 
standing, being obliged by it to pray five times 
a day, they usually do it, if they can, in their 
mosques or temples. I know the primitive 
Christians prayed oftener, and so do many at 
this day, either in public or private. But the 
greatest part of those which are called Chris- 
tians, scarce ever pray, at least as we know of, 
so much as once a week, unless it be perhaps 
on the Lord's day. Nay, I fear there are many, 
who never publicly pray at all, for a whole 
year together, if in their whole lives. But wo 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 75 

to such Christians as these, if they may be call- 
ed so, who thus crucify to themselves the Son 
of God afresh ; putting him to open shame. It 
will be far more tolerable for Turks and Ma- 
hometans, at the day of judgment, than for these. 
The Jews, as I have shown, had their set 
hours of prayer, every morning and evening, 
both at the temple, and in all their synagogues, 
which were dispersed all over the country. 
And they were so constant and punctual in 
going thither at the hours of prayer, that if any 
one lived near a synagogue, and did not then 
go to pray with the congregation, they put a 
mark upon that man, calling him schakin rang, 
an ill neighbor, as Maimonodes, a learned Jew, 
assures us in his Tephillah. I wish there were 
no such neighbors among us, ill neighbors, that 
seldom or never join with us in our public de- 
votions ; and so, as to all outward appearance, 
live as without God in the world. But what a 
reproach is this to our holy religion, and to our 
blessed Saviour himself, the author of it, that 



76 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

Jews and Turks , who are strangers, yea ene- 
mies to his religion, should be more constant at 
their devotions to Almighty God, than they 
who profess it ? God grant it may never be 
laid to their charge. But why do I wish that 
when I know that it will. It will most cer- 
tainly be laid to their charge ere long, except 
they repent before it be too late ; and that too, 
so as to be as constant for the future at our 
public prayers, as they have hitherto slighted 
or neglected them. 

This would, in a great measure, retrieve the 
honor which our religion has lost by such care- 
less professors of it ; for it would cast such a 
lustre upon it, as would make it outshine all 
other religions in its outward appearance, as 
much as it excels them in its inward purity and 
truth ; which would redound very much to the 
glory of Christ, our ever blessed Redeemer. 
And therefore, all that have any regard for that, 
as I hope we all have, cannot but look upon 
themselves as bound in duty to take all oppor- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



77 



tunities they can get of performing their public 
devotions to Almighty God, according as that 
religion requires which he hath taught, and 
they profess. 

If we would but give ourselves time to look 
into these things, which I have thus briefly ex- 
plained, we might easily see, what obligations 
lie upon ministers to read, and people to assist 
at our public prayers, when and wheresoever 
they can get an opportunity. It is God's will, 
and for his glory ; and therefore it is our duty, 
and we are bound to do it, whether we can get 
anything by it or no. But that great and most 
gracious God, whom we serve, hath of his infi- 
nite goodness so ordered it, that whatsoever is 
done in obedience to his command, and for the 
honor of his name, doth ipso facto tend also to 
our profit and advantage. And this particu- 
larly doth so in an high degree. 

Prayer itself, in general, is a duty so well- 
pleasing unto God, that he hath appointed it to 
be the means whereby to obtain of him all the 



78 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

good things we can want or desire ; he hath 
passed his word, and hath promised to grant 
them if we ask them as we ought, in the name 
of Christ, and with faith in his word and pro- 
mise, Matt. vii. 7 : chap. xxi» 22. Mark xi. 
24. Job xvi. 23, &c. And if the prayers 
which single persons make in their own private 
houses or closets be so powerful and prevalent, 
those are much more so which are made by- 
several persons met together for that purpose 
in God's house. To these public prayers, 
there are many special promises made, which 
belong peculiarly unto them. I shall instance 
only two. The first shall be that of our bless- 
ed Saviour ; " Again I say unto you, that if 
two of you shall agree upon earth, as touching 
anything that they shall ask, it shall be done 
for them of my Father which is in heaven. 
For where two or three are gathered together 
in my name, there am I in the midst of them," 
Matt, xviii. 19, 20. Here we have Christ's 
own word, that where any two (much more 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



79 



where many) agree to ask anything of God, as 
we do in every petition we put up in our public 
prayers, it shall be done for them. And that 
where two or three, or any number of devout 
persons, are met together in his name, he is 
specially present with them, to hear their 
prayers, and to present them to his Father, to 
be accepted, and granted by him. Which pro- 
mise, in all respects, doth as properly belong 
to our public, as to any prayers that can be 
made ; they being such as we all agree in 
before-hand ; and we do not only meet, but put 
them up also in the name of Christ. 

The same may be said also of the promise 
which God made to the House which Solomon 
had built and dedicated to him, saying, Now 
mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend 
unto the prayer that is made in this place, 2 
Chron. vii. 15. For though this promise was 
first made to that house particularly, .yet in 
that, it was designed for all such places as 
should be dedicated to God, as that was. As 



80 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

God having said to Joshua, I will not fail thee 
nor forsake thee, Josh. i. 5. The Apostle from 
thence infers, that we may boldly say, the 
Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man 
shall do unto me, Heb. xiii. 6. So here, the 
Lord having said to Solomon, Mine ears shall 
be attent to the prayer that is made in thi s 
place ; we may boldly say, the Lord hath a 
particular respect to places devoted to his ser- 
vice, and will in a peculiar manner hear and 
accept the prayers which we make in them. 

Now seeing there are such special promises 
made to prayers publicly performed by several 
persons together in God's own house ; we there- 
fore ought to have a special regard to such 
prayers, and a special trust and confidence, that 
God, according to the said promises, will in a 
special manner hear them, and grant what We 
there pray for together. And then he will cer- 
tainly do it, as the saints of God in all ages have 
found by experience ; and therefore have al- 
ways preferred the public before the private de- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



81 



votions. And if they could not be bodily pre- 
sent with them, while their brethren w r ere at 
their public devotions in God's house, yet they 
had such a respect to them, that they would 
pray at the same time, and so join with them 
in their souls, although they could not do it with 
their bodies. There are many instances of this 
in the Holy Scripture ; and some wherein God 
himself was pleased, in a wonderful manner, to 
signify his approbation of it. It was at the even- 
ing sacrifice, the time of public prayer, that 
Ezra made that solemn prayer, which was so 
highly approved of, as to be made part of the 
Canonical Scriptures, Ezra ix. 5. It was at 
the time of the offering the evening sacrifice at 
Hierusalem, that Elijah the prophet at Mount 
Carmel prayed so effectually, that " the fire of 
the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, 
and the wood, and the stone, and the dust, and 
licked up the water that was in the trench," 
which he had there made, to the confirming of 
the people in the worship of the true God, 



82 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

1 Kings xviii. 26, 29. It was about the time 
of the evening oblation, that Daniel was pray- 
ing, when the angel Gabriel was sent to acquaint 
him with the precise time of the Messiah? s com- 
ing, Dan. ix. 21. And if we may believe an 
Apocryphal book, it was about the time that 
the incense that evening was offered at Jerusa- 
lem^ in the house of the Lord^ that Judeth prayed 
at Bethulia, so as to overcome that vast army 
which then lay before the place, Judeth ix. 1. 
Be sure it was at the ninth hour, the hour of 
evening prayer, that Cornelius was praying in 
his house, when an angel was sent to acquaint 
him, that his " prayers and hisjilms were come 
up for a memorial before God," and to direct 
him how to come to the knowledge of Christ, 
and so into the way of saltation, Acts x. 3, 30. 
It was not certainly for nothing, that it is so 
particularly noted, that these prayers were made 
by such eminent saints at the time of the even- 
ing sacrifice, or which is the same at the ninth 
hour , the hour of public prayer. Neither do I 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



83 



see any reason, why such a circumstance should 
be so often left upon record, but that we should 
learn thereby, that God hath a particular res- 
pect, according to his promise, to the public de- 
votions which his people perform together to 
him ; so as to hear also the prayers which are 
made at the same time by others, who join with 
them in their hearts, though they cannot any 
other way. As David also did, when praying 
in private, or at some distance from the temple ; 
he said to God, " Let my prayer be set forth 
before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my 
hand, as the evening sacrifice," Psal. cxli. 2, 
where we may observe, that in this, as well as 
in all the places before quoted ; not the morn- 
ing, but the evening sacrifice, is particularly 
named ; because, as I suppose, that was the 
greater sacrifice of the two, as being offered at 
the same hour wherein the death of Christ, 
typified by it, was actually accomplished, and 
for that reason also no sacrifice was to be offered 
after that. And here we may likewise observe 



84 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

how great esteem Dame? had for the public ser- 
vice at the temple, and how much he preferred 
it before his own private prayer, in that he had 
not only an eye to it while he prayed, and so 
joined as well as he could in it, but he desired 
that his private prayer might be like to that, or 
as acceptable as that was to God. 

But the more pleasing any duty is to God, 
the more profitable it is to those who do it. 
And therefore he having so often, by word and 
deed, manifested himself well pleased with the 
public or common service which his people 
perform to him, we cannot doubt but they al- 
ways receive proportionable advantage from it. 
The Jews called stated public prayers mahama- 
doth, stations, and have a saying among them, 
that without such stations the world could not 
stand. Be sure no people have any ground to 
expect public peace and tranquillity, without 
praising and praying publicly unto him, who 
alone can give it. But if all the people, sup- 
pose of this nation, should every day, with one 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 85 

heart and mouth, join together in our common 
supplications to Almighty God, how happy 
should we then be ! How free from danger ! 
How safe and secure under his protection ! 
This is the argument which Christ himself 
useth, why men ought always to pray and not 
to j 'aint ; in the parable of the unjust judge, 
who was at last prevailed upon to grant a 
widow's request, merely by her importunity in 
asking it. " And shall not God," saith he, 
" avenge his own elect, which cry day and 
night unto him, though he bear long with 
them ? I tell you, he will avenge them speed- 
ily. n But then, he adds, " Nevertheless, when 
the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on 
the earth V Luke xviii. 7, 8. As if he had 
said, God will most certainly avenge and pro- 
tect those who cry day and night, morning and 
evening, to him. But men will not believe 
this ; and that is the reason why there are so 
few who believe that he will hear their prayers 
according to his promise. But blessed be God, 



86 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

though they be but few, there are some who 
really believe God's word, and accordingly pray 
every morning and eyening, not only for them- 
selves, but for the country where they live, 
for all their governors both in church and state, 
and for all sorts and conditions of men among 
us. To these the whole kingdom is beholden 
for its support and preservation. If they should 
once fail, I know not what should become of 
us. But so long as there are pious and devout 
persons crying day and night to God for aid and 
defence against our enemies, we need not fear 
any hurt they can ever do us ; at least, accord- 
ing to God's ordinary course ofdealing in the 
world. I know that he is sometimes so highly 
incensed against a people, that he will hearken 
to no intercessions for them. As when he said 
of the idolatrous and factious Jews, " though 
Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my 
mind could not be towards this people,' 7 Jer. xv. 
1. Moses had before diverted his wrath from 
them, Exod. xxxii. 11, 12, 14; and so had 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



87 



Samuel ; 1 Sam. vii. 9 ; but at this time he 
saith, " Though both of them stood before him 
and besought him for it, yet he would not be 
reconciled to this people." Which plainly im- 
plies, that this was an extraordinary case, and 
that he ordinarily used to hearken to the prayers 
which his faithful servants, such as Moses and 
Samuel were, made to him in behalf of the peo- 
ple among whom they dwelt. According to 
that of the Apostle St. James, " The effectual 
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth 
much," Jam. v. 16. To the same purpose is 
that parallel place in the Prophet Ezekiel, 
where God saith, " That if a land sin grievous- 
ly against him, and he send the famine, the 
sword, the pestilence, or the like punishment, 
to cut off both man and beast from it, though 
these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were 
in it, . they should deliver none but their own 
souls," Ezek. xiv. 14, 16, 18, 20. But here 
we may likewise observe, that in such an ex- 
traordinary case as this, which God grant may 



88 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

not be our own ere long, although such righte- 
ous persons, by all their prayers and tears, can 
deliver none else, yet they themselves shall be 
delivered. As Lot was out of Sodom, and the 
Christians, at the final destruction of Jerusalem, 
when eleven hundred thousand Jews perished 
{Joseph, de bel. Jud. I. 7. c. 17), and net one 
Christian, they being all, by the secret provi- 
dence of God, conveyed out of the city before 
the siege began. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1.3. c. 5. 
Which shows the particular care that God takes 
of all that believe and serve him. And that, 
one would think, is enough to prevail with all 
that consult their own or others' welfare, to 
neglect no opportunities which they can get 
of serving so great and good a Master, all the 
ways they can, and particularly by performing 
their daily devotions to him. In that they 
have good ground to hope that he will hear 
their prayers for others, but may be sure that 
he will take care of them, whatsoever happens. 
Besides these common benefits which accrue 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 89 

to the kingdom and church in general, from the 
common prayers which are daily performed in 
it, and to the persons who perform them as they 
are members of the same : there are likewise 
many others which they thereby receive, every 
one in his own private capacity, as he is a 
Christian in general. Especially when they 
perform these their daily devotions, according 
to that excellent order which our church hath 
appointed for them. For by thus addressing 
themselves every day to God as their heavenly 
Father, they learn to live with an entire sub- 
mission to him, and dependance upon him in all 
the changes and chances of this mortal life. 
By confessing their sins every day to God, their 
hearts are always touched with the sense of 
them, and with godly sorrow and repentance 
for them. By having God's absolution of 
them declared every day unto them by one of his 
own ministers, they are confirmed in their hopes 
of pardon by the blood of Christ. By praising 
and glorifying Almighty God every day, their 



90 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

hearts are cheered, and their spirits refreshed 
with the remembrance and recognition of his 
glory and goodness towards them, as David's 
was, when he said, My soul shall be satisfied 
even as it was with marrow and fatness, when my 
mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips, Psal. lxiii. 5. 
By hearing some part of God's holy word read 
them every day, they are constantly put in 
mind of their duty to him, what he would have 
them to believe and do, which otherwise they 
might be apt to forget. By repeating the Apos- 
tles' creed every day, wherein all the funda- 
mental articles of our Christian religion are 
comprehended, they are kept firm and steadfast 
in the true faith of Christ. By praying every 
day for pardon, and peace, and grace, and all 
things necessary both for this life and the next, 
they have the word and promise of God him- 
self continually engaged to grant them, and 
therefore may be always confident that they 
shall have them. By approaching every day 
into God's special presence, and there convers- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 91 

ing with him according to his own ordinance 
and appointment, they live always with a 
quick sense of God upon their minds, and un- 
der the influences of his Holy Spirit to assist 
and direct them in all their ways. 

But why do I offer at showing the many and 
great advantages which arise from the daily fre- 
quenting the public prayers of the church, 
with that attention, faith, reverence, and devo- 
tion, which is requisite to so divine a duty ? 
when they are so many and so great that no 
man is able fully to describe them, nor can any 
conceive aright of them, but only they who by 
reason of use have their senses exercised to 
discern them. They find by experience that 
next to the frequent receiving of the Lord's 
supper, this is the most effectual means they 
can use, whereby to keep their minds always 
in a truly pious and Christian temper. And 
therefore are ready upon all occasions to attest 
it, not only with their lips, but also in their 
lives and actions. And cannot but wonder 



92 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

that people should slight those holy exercises 
which they reap so much profit from, and feel 
so much pleasure and delight in. Whereas on 
the other side, they who never go to the pray- 
ers at all, or but very seldom, and so never re- 
ceive any benefit from them to themselves, 
they wonder as much how others should re- 
ceive any ; if they be not sometimes tempted 
also, to say or think with those sons of Belial 
in Job, " What is the Almighty that we should 
serve him ? and what profit should we have, if 
we pray unto him," Job xxi. 15. I hope 
there are not many who really think so, but I 
am sure that most men act as if they thought 
that there is nothing to be got by serving God 
or praying to him. For all men naturally de- 
sire that which will bring them in any profit or 
advantage, and lay out themselves wholly for 
the obtaining of it. And therefore if they be- 
lieved that the serving God would do that, 
they would need no other arguments to per- 
suade them to it. If every man that came to 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



93 



prayers could be sure to get but one shilling 
for every time he came, I am apt to think that 
all the churches where there are daily prayers, 
would be every day as full as they can hold 
both morning and evening. But the mischief 
is, the profit which is to be had here, is of 
another nature and such as they cannot fancy 
to be^ any profit at all, in that they are not, as 
they think, made richer by it in the things per- 
taining to this life* Though that also is a great 
mistake ; " For godliness," or the worshipping 
and serving God, " hath the promise of the 
life that now is, as well as of that which is to 
come," 1 Tim. iv. 8. 

But howsoever, this being only in promise, 
not in present payment, they cannot get it into 
their heads that it is worth their while to look 
after it. And as for the other world, which the 
promises respect, they have no sense of that 
upon their minds, or at least, not enough to 
over-balance their cares for this. And though 
men may pretend a thousand little excuses for 



94 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

their neglecting the public service of God, this 
still lies at the bottom of them all. They do 
not really believe that they can get so much by 
that as they may by doing something else. If 
they did, our Churches would be as full as the 
Exchange is every day in the week. Whereas 
we find the contrary by sad and daily experi- 
ence ; insomuch that in this great and populous 
city, which professeth religion as much, if not 
more than any city in the world, to our shame 
be it spoken, there is scarcely one in an hun- 
dred, that take any more notice of God and his 
service, than as if they had no God to serve 
all the week long, and that which is worst of 
all, they are not sensible that it is a fault, and 
so cannot repent of it. Though St. Peter and 
St. John, and such great saints, used to go every 
day to church, at the hours of prayer, they do 
not look upon themselves as bound to do so ; 
for several reasons which they know, but do 
not care to tell them. And they do wisely in 
keeping them to themselves ; for they may 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



95 



perhaps make a shift to satisfy themselves at 
present with them, but I fear they can never 
satisfy others, nor themselves neither at the last 
day, much less the judge of the whole world. 
It would be very well if they could. . But so 
far as we can guess at them, if we examine them 
but by the little light we have in this world 
we may easily see into the vanity and weak- 
ness of them. 

This therefore is that which I shall now en- 
deavor to do. Not that I can pretend to 
search into all the reasons, if they may be so 
called, which keep men from our daily prayers. 
Some, I believe, have none but their own wills ; 
with such it would be in vain to argue. But 
they which have any shadow of reason for it, 
though some have one, some another, as they 
themselves best know ; yet I humbly conceive 
they may all be reduced to these following 
heads, which I shall now consider. 

First , therefore, some will not come to our 
prayers, because, as they pretend, they do not 



96 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

like them ? But why do not they like them ? 
Is there anything in them contrary to the 
Word of God, or unbecoming his service ? 
That most of them be sure cannot say, for they 
never r,ead nor heard them in their lives, nor 
are suffered to do it, by those which have 
power over them, lest they should see, as they 
certainly would, their error or mistake. And 
they who have sometimes perhaps read or 
heard of them, if they would but impartially 
examine them by God's revealed will, cannot 
but acknowledge them to be exactly consonant 
and agreeable to it : and some of them have 
testified the same, by joining with them upon 
occasion, which it is supposed they would 
never have done if they thought it unlawful ; 
as it must needs be, if there be anything in them 
contrary to God's word. But why then do not 
they do it often ? Why not every day ? The 
great reason which they pretend, is because 
our prayers are read out of a book, and they 
had rather hear a man pray by heart and ex- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 97 

tempore, which they think to be more edify- 
ing ; but the contrary to that hath been often 
demonstrated beyond all contradiction, together 
with the many and great inconveniences which 
usually follow upon such private ex-tempore 
prayers in public, not to be suffered in the 
Church of Christ, as they never were in any 
part of it till of late years, and then too, no- 
where else but in this Island. And therefore 
at present, I would only desire those, who sepa- 
rate from our public prayers, not out of hu- 
mor or faction, but merely out of an erroneous 
and misguided conscience, of which sort I 
hope there are some. I would desire such 
to consider, whether the great promise which 
our Saviour hath made to public prayers, can 
possibly be applied to their way of praying. 
To me it seems impossible, in that they do 
not perform the condition required in it. The 
promise I mentioned before ; it runs thus, 
" Again I say unto you, that if two of you 
shall agree on earth, touching anything that 



98 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my 
Father which is in heaven," Matt, xviii. 19. 
It is plain that this promise belongs to public 
prayers, such as are made by several persons 
together, at the least by two ; and it is as 
plain also, that it belongs only to such public 
prayers, wherein those several persons agree 
together beforehand what they shall ask or 
pray for. But where the Minister useth only 
an ex-tempore prayer, how many people soever 
may be present at it, there are no two of them, 
who agree what they shall ask : that is left 
wholly to the Minister, none of the people so 
much as knowing what he intends to ask : nor 
he himself neither, before he hath asked it. 
They may perhaps agree to it, after they hear 
it ; and perhaps not. But if they do, that is 
not the thing which the promise requires. 
For it is made only to those, who agree touch- 
ing anything that they shall ask ; and so re- 
quires a previous agreement about the matter 
of our public prayers, before we put them up to 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



99 



Almighty God, which they who use only ex- 
temporary prayers can by no means pretend to, 
nor by consequence to this great promise, of 
God's granting what they ask. 

But now in the public prayers of the Church, 
we keep close to the condition of the promise : 
we ask nothing but what we all agree before- 
hand shall be asked. All the Clergy in Eng- 
land^ by their Procurators in Convocation, and 
all the Commons by their Representatives in 
Parliament- agreed together, touching every- 
thing that should be asked every day in the 
year ; and so do all that come to the prayers ; 
they all know before what shall then be asked, 
and accordingly agree in the asking of it ; and 
therefore have sure ground to believe, that God, 
according to his promise, will do it for them. 

These words of our Saviour might be further 
improved, to show, not only the lawfulness, 
but the necessity of set forms of prayer, in the 
public service of God. But I suppose there 
are none here present but who are satisfied 






100 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

already in that, and therefore shall only add, 
that they, who pretend this to be the reason 
why they do not join with us in our daily pray- 
ers, because they like those in private congre- 
gations better, at the same time give us too 
much cause to suspect, that there is something 
else at the bottom ; for if that was all, they 
would have those which they call public pray- 
ers every day in their own way ; or at least 
would come to ours when they have none of 
their own, which they never do,'and so perform 
no sort of public service to God upon the week 
days ; which how they will answer at the last 
day, for my part, I know not ; but if they do, 
it will be very well. 

There are others, who have a more plausible 
excuse for their not assisting at the public, be- 
cause they daily perform their private devo- 
tions according to Christ's own command, say- 
ing, "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not 
be as the hypocrites ; for they love to pray 
standing in the synagogues, and in the corners 



J 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 101 

of streets, that they may be seen of men. 
Verily, I say unto you, they have their reward. 
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy 
closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray 
to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Fa- 
ther which seeth in secret, shall reward thee 
openly," Matth. vi. 5, 6. But in these 
words, our Saviour is so far from excusing us 
from public prayers, that he only directs us 
how we ought to perform them aright, that we 
must not pray as the hypocritical Pharisees did, 
only to be seen of men, and so make that the 
end of their public prayers which were ordain- 
ed, and therefore ought to be performed, not 
for our own, but for God's honor and glory. 
And whosoever performs them only to be seen 
of men, they have their reward they looked for, 
even the applause of men ; but they have no 
ground to expect any reward from God, who 
never accepts any services, but such as are per- 
formed out of sincere obedience to his laws, 
and for the honor of his name. And therefore, 



102 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

he that would pray acceptably to God, as he 
must often pray secretly in his closet, where he 
cannot have the applause of men in his eye, 
because none seeth him but God : so even in 
his public prayers, he must act with the same 
sincere intentions as if he was in private, aim- 
ing sincerely at the glory of God, as the great 
end for which public prayers were ordained, 
and to which they conduce much more than 
our private can ; for in private, none sees us 
but God ; but in public, though we must not 
pray therefore that men may see us, yet we 
cannot pray but some will see us acknowledg- 
ing God's goodness, and imploring his mercy 
to us, which is much for his honor and glory. 
According to that remarkable saying of our 
blessed Saviour, " Let your light so shine be- 
fore men, that they may see your good works, 
and glorify your Father which is in heaven," 
Matt. v. 16. 

Wherefore they who sincerely desire to ob- 
serve all Christ's commands, as becometh good 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 103 

Christians, they must make conscience of pray- 
ing often every one in his closet, or by himself. 
But they must not look upon themselves, as 
thereby excused from praying also publicly as 
often as they have opportunity ; for that also, 
as I have shown, is elsewhere commanded by 
him. But rather if they happen to be brought 
into such a strait, that it is morally impos- 
sible for them to perform both ; they must pre- 
fer the public before their private devotions. 
And in both must take special care to act with 
that simplicity and godly sincerity, as becometh 
those who have to do with an all-seeing God, 
who hates nothing more than hypocrisy and 
deceit. 

The same may be said of those prayers which 
are, or ought to be, performed in every family 
apart, and by itself, as the great means whereby 
to keep up the sense of God in it, and to have 
his blessing always upon it. For which purpose 
the Common Prayer is certainly the best that 
can be used, as it may all be, except the Abso- 



J 04 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

liitioiij by any master of a family, who by this 
means may in a great measure, as to his own 
family, supply the wants of the public prayers 
of the church where they cannot be had ; but 
where they may, these family prayers should 
not hinder, but rather make way for them, by 
fitting the members of each family better for 
the more solemn service of God in the public 
congregation. It cannot be doubted but that 
St. Peter and St. John prayed both in their 
closets and in their families every day ; and yet 
for all that, " They went up together into the 
Temple at the hour of prayer." 

Another excuse that men commonly make 
unto themselves for their neglecting of our 
daily prayers, is because God, as they say, hath 
given them six days to labor in, and hath re- 
served only one for himself; therefore now 
called His or the Lord?s Day. But that they 
solemnly observe, by joining with the congre- 
gation in his public service ; and therefore do 
not think themselves obliged to do so upon 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 105 

other days also, whereon God doth not only 
permit, but require them to follow their respec- 
tive callings for the maintenance of themselves 
and families. It is true, he doth so : but it 
doth not from thence follow, that they need 
not serve God upon those days as well as upon 
his own. His day ought to be spent wholly 
in his service, and no other business to be done 
upon it, which may as well be done another 
day. Upon other days men may and ought to 
mind their particular callings as well as their 
public devotions ; but still these ought to be 
minded as well as those. No people were 
ever more strictly commanded to keep the sab- 
bath than the Jews were ; yet they were com- 
manded to. serve God publicly twice every day, 
by offering a sacrifice together with their pray- 
ers every morning and evening in the week. 
To which there are only two more extraordi- 
narily added upon the sabbath. And we cer- 
tainly are as much bound to offer up our pray- 
ers and praises unto God, as they were to offer 



106 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

up their sacrifices every day. Otherwise our 
religion, in the very point of devotion, would 
come short of theirs, which cannot be supposed 
without great absurdity by any that understand 
it and know the Author of it. 

But the vanity of this excuse appears suffi- 
ciently from what I discoursed before, concern- 
ing the necessity and advantages of daily pray- 
ers ; and therefore shall say no more to it here, 
but that they who never perform their public 
devotions unto God, but upon his own day, will 
hardly do it well then ; and that all who desire 
in good earnest to keep the Lord's Day as they 
ought, must go to Church at ihe^hour of prayer, 
every day in the week if they can. 

But some perhaps may say, they cannot do 
it. They cannot spare so much time as that 
requires from their worldly business upon the 
week days, without apparent danger of ruining 
themselves and families. Some perhaps may say 
this : I am sure all cannot. There are many 
in and about this city, and in the country too, 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 107 

who have no worldly business to do, or at least 
do none all the week long. To them every- 
day is a Sabbath, a day of rest, wherein they 
have nothing else to do, but to serve him who 
hath given them so much leisure on purpose that 
they might do it. They keep holiday every 
day, and therefore should keep every day holy, 
or at least so much of it as is necessary for the 
offering up their public prayers and praises unto 
God who hath provided so liberally for them. 
Otherwise the time that he hath given them 
will be spent to little purpose, and their estates, 
if possible, to less. For they will be so far 
from doing them any good, that they will but 
increase their misery, if not in this world, as 
they often do, yet most certainly in the next. 
And as for such among you as follow some 
particular calling, I must acknowledge it is no 
more than what you may and ought to do, so 
far as it is necessary for the maintenance of 
yourselves and those of your own house, and 
for your being better able to relieve others, and 



108 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

to do good in the world. But I do not think 
that you can be therefore excused from attend- 
ing daily upon the public worship of God, as 
often as you can ; I say, as often as you can. 
For I know things may sometimes fall out so, 
that you cannot do it without very great incon- 
venience. And at such times I humbly con- 
ceive you may lawfully be absent without any 
scruple. But I speak only of the general 
course of a man's life. As it is said of our bless- 
ed Saviour, that being at Nazareth he went 
into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day, as his 
custom was , Luke iv. 16. So it ought to be 
your usual custom to go every day to Church, 
at the hours of prayer, notwithstanding any or- 
dinary business which you may have to do in 
the mean time. As I doubt not but you your- 
selves will acknowledge, if you would but 
seriously consider these few things. 

First, consider, that ye have souls as well as 
bodies to take care of every day in the year, 
and another world to provide for as well as 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



109 



this ; an eternal world, where ye must live in 
happiness or misery for ever. And therefore it 
would be the height of folly and madness, to 
suffer the ordinary affairs of this life to hinder 
you from using the means whereby to obtain 
grace and salvation in the next. 

Consider, also, that you neither have nor can 
have anything but what you receive from God. 
It is only his blessing that maketh rich, Prov. 
x. 22. And the way to have that, is to seek it 
daily of him, and to prefer your duty to him 
before all things else ; without which you have 
no ground to expect it ; but by this means you 
cannot fail of it, for you have his own word for 
it, Matt. vi. 33. 

Again, consider, you can never get hurt by 
doing good, nor lose anything by serving God, 
except that which is better lost than found. 
Whilst you are sincerely praying to, or praising 
him who orders all things in the world, you 
may be confident, that whatsoever happens to 
you at that time, shall one way or other turn to 



110 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

your good, or at least, do real evil shall befall 
you. As you see in the children of Israel ; all 
their men met together by God's command at 
Jerusalem at three certain times every year ; 
whereby the whole land was left naked and 
open, without any defence at those times against 
their enemies round about. And yet it is very 
observable, none ever invaded it, nor ever so 
much as attempted to do it at any of those 
times when they were met together before 
God : as he himself had promised, saying, 
" Neither shall any man desire thy land when 
thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord, 
thrice in the year," Exod. xxxiv. 23, 24. 

Furthermore, consider, none of you, I be- 
lieve, are so busy all the day long in your 
trades, but you can find time to visit a friend ; 
and what better friend can you visit than him, 
who loved you, and gave himself for you ? None 
of you but can find time to go from your own 
into your neighbor's, or perhaps to a public 
house, and there continue perhaps an hour or 



PUBLIC PRAYER. Ill 

two together ? And what house can you go to 
better than God's ? His house of public pray- 
er. And where can you spend an hour or two 
in a day better than there ? None of you but 
can find time every day to converse with one 
company or other, either about news or busi- 
ness no way relating to your trades. And what 
better company can you keep ? Whom can 
you converse with better than Him who gov- 
erns and over-rules all the occurrences of the 
world ? And what better news can you hear 
than that which is publicly read to you out of 
his holy Word, by one of his own officers? 
None of you but can find time every day, when 
tired with business, to divert yourselves with 
some recreation or other. And where can you 
find better diversions ? How can you recreate 
your spirits better than as the glorified saints 
and angels do, by praising, admiring, adoring 
the eternal God, the Lamb that sitteth upon the 
throne in heaven. In short, if you have no time 
for a whole day together, to mind anything else 



112 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

but your particular calling, I heartily pity you : 
if you have, I am sure you can no way spend 
it better, than by going into the house of God, 
at the hour of prayer. 

And besides, you who fear that you may 
lose something by it, I desire you to consider 
how much you may lose unless you go. If 
Anna, the prophetess, had not been in the house 
of God at the hour of prayer, when Christ was 
first brought thither, she had lost the sight of 
her Saviour, the most blessed sight that ever 
mortal saw, Luke ii. 37, 38. If St. Paul had 
not been praying in the temple, he had lost 
that heavenly trance or ecstasy, wherein Christ 
himself appeared and spake to him, Acts. xxii. 
17. If St. Peter and St. John had not gone into 
the temple at the hour of prayer, they had lost the 
happy opportunity of working a great miracle, 
and of converting about five thousand persons 
to the faith of Christ. And those five thousand 
persons if they had not been there at that time, 
they might have lost their souls, and have been 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



113 



undone for ever. So here, suppose you should 
happen to lose something by leaving your 
shops or trades awhile to come to Church and 
serve God there, you may lose ten times more, 
yea ten thousand times more by not doing of it. 
The utmost that you can lose by coming to 
Church, is only the taking or getting a little 
money, which may do you more hurt than 
good. But by not coming, you will lose the 
pleasure of praising and magnifying him that 
made you : you will lose the honor of convers- 
ing with him in his own house, and in his most 
special presence ; you will lose the profit you 
might receive from his holy word there read ; 
you will lose the benefit of all the prayers 
which are there made ; you may lose the love 
and favor of God, and his blessing upon what 
you have ; you may lose that clear sight and 
sense of his divine goodness, which he has of- 
ten been pleased to give his people, by u lifting 
up the light of his countenance upon them" 
while they are before him ; you will lose the 
_ ___ 



114 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

satisfaction of having done your duty and pleas- 
ed God. Indeed you may lose you know not 
what, nor ever will know till ye cast up your 
accounts at the last day, and state your profit 
and loss impartially on both sides. Then you 
will clearly see that the losses which you sus- 
tained by the neglect of your daily devotions, 
were infinite and inestimable, and that all the 
profits you got by it, were mere cyphers, signi- 
fying nothing at all. 

Next to this, you may consider also that you 
are so happy as to live in a place, where the 
prayers are react most hours of the day. So 
that if you cannot order your affairs so as to go 
at one hour, you may gaatanother. And both 
morning and evening pruyer do not take up much 
above an hour, or an hour and a half, in a day ; 
and it is much if you cannot find so much time 
in a whole day wherein to serve and worship 
him, who gives you all the time you have. And 
if some of a family happen to be so necessarily 
employed for a whole day together, that they 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



115 



cannot, yet it is rare but others may be spared 
to go to Church at the hours of prayer. There 
is no master or mistress of a family, but may, 
if they cannot come themselves, at least send 
some that belong to them, that so the family 
may have some share in our prayers if they will. 
They that will not do so much as that, have 
little cause to pretend any love to God, to Christ, 
to their own, or to any other souls that he hath 
purchased with his own blood. 

Above all, consider the great end of your 
coming into and living in this world. , God did 
not make you only to eat and drink, much less 
to moil and toil only for food and raiment. It 
is true, he having made such things necessary 
for the preservation of your life, he doth not 
only permit, but require you to make use of all 
lawful means for the getting of them. But still 
they are only the means, not the end of your liv- 
ing. And as you do not live only to eat, but you 
eat to live ; so you live not for your own sakes, 
but for his who gives you life. Even for the 



116 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

sake of God, who gave you life at first by his 
word without any means, and still continues it 
to you by the same word in the use of the fore- 
said means, and all for himself, for his own honor 
and glory. Which therefore is, or ought to be, 
the great end of your eating or drinking, and of 
all and every action of your whole life. As we 
learn from his Apostle, saying, " Whether there- 
fore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do 
all to the glory of God," 1 Cor. x. 31. This 
therefore is the great end of your coming into 
the world, and the great work you have to do 
in it, even to promote his glory all you can. 
But in doing this work * r ou will also work out 
your own salvation. For it hath pleased God 
of his infinite goodness, to join your works and 
your ways, his glory and your happiness, so in- 
separably together, that you cannot do one with- 
out the other ; nor attain either but ye shall 
have both. So far as ye advance God's glory, 
so far ye advance your own happiness. If 
you glorify him, he will glorify you, though not I 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 117 

for any virtue or merit there is in anything you 
do for him, all you do being infinitely short of 
what ye owe him ; yet by the merits of that 
death which his Son hath suffered, and by virtue 
of that intercession he always makes for those 
who finish the work which he hath given them 
to do, even glorify God in the world. 

Wherefore as ever you desire, as I hope you 
all do, not to live in vain and to no purpose, 
but to do the work which ye were sent hither 
about ; you must make it your chief care and 
study every day, and neglect no opportunities 
that ye can get of promoting the glory of God, 
and in that your own happiness. But there is 
nothing you can do every day that conduceth 
more to that end, than our public devotions. 
For by them, as I have shown already, we both 
set forth God's glory, and forward our own sal- 
vation. And therefore they ought in reason, 
as well as duty, to be preferred before your or- 
dinary affairs, as being of more consequence to 
the main end of your living than anything else 



118 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

that you commonly do. In other cases you 
yourselves always make lesser businesses give 
way to greater. At any time you will neglect 
the getting a penny rather than lose a pound. 
And whatsoever work you have upon your 
hands, you will lay it aside to feed your bodies, 
your frail and mortal bodies, two or three times 
a day, because you think that to be the more 
necessary work. And do not you think it as 
necessary to take care of your souls as of your 
bodies ? and to serve God, as to feed yourselves 
every day ? Yea, is not this u the better part, 
the one thing needful ? " I am sure ye cannot 
deny it ; for Christ himself hath said it, Luke 
x. 42. And therefore you cannot but acknow- 
ledge that this ought to be done in the first 
place. So that all the common affairs of this 
life ought both in reason and conscience to give 
place, as much as fs possible, to your serving 
God, so as that your souls may live and be 
happy for ever. 

If you would but keep these things always 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



119 



in your mind, you would never suffer any slight 
occasion to keep you either from your private 
or public devotions : you would not consider 
whether you can spare time from minding the 
world to serve God, but whether you can spare 
time from serving God to mind the world ; not 
what you may lose by going to Church, but 
what you may lose by staying at home : and 
so would need no other monitor to put you 
every day in mind of going to the house of God, 
as the Apostles did, at the hour of prayer. 

But after all, I fear there are but few that 
will do it. But few of those also who have 
now heard it to be their duty. They think it 
enough that they have been hearing; as for 
practising, that they do not love to think of. 
But I heartily wish that such hearers would 
consider what St. Paul saith ; " Not the hear- 
ers of the Law are just before God, but the 
doers of the Law shall be justified," Rom. ii. 13. 
What St. James saith ; " Be ye doers of the 
Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your 



120 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

ownselves," Jam. i. 2. What Christ himself 
saith; " That servant which knew his Lord's 
will and prepared not himself, neither did ac- 
cording to his will, shall be beaten with many 
stripes," Luke xii. 47. And what they them- 
selves can say for themselves at the last day — 
I am sure they cannot plead ignorance, for they 
have been now sufficiently told of it — and what 
other excuses they can make besides those 
which have been already answered, I cannot 
imagine, except it be one which is not worth 
answering but that it will give us occasion to 
explain the way and manner of performing our 
daily devotions aright, to God's glory and our 
own good. And for that purpose it may not 
be amiss to take notice of it. In short, there- 
fore, it is this : some perhaps may say that they 
have been sometimes at our daily prayers, but 
never found themselves any better for it, and 
therefore do not think it worth their while 
to go any more. 

This, I must confess, may seem a notable 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



121 



argument to such as measure their duty only 
by their profit, and think it not worth their 
while to do anything for God, unless they can 
get something to themselves by it. But I 
would have such to know, that God is their 
Maker, and they are therefore bound to do 
what he commands, whether they can get any- 
thing by it or no. If he gives them anything, 
they must thank him for it. For they are still 
but unprofitable servants , they have done no 
more than what was their duty to do, Luke 
xvii. 10 ; nor so much, if they do it only for 
their own advantage. For it is their duty, not 
only to do what he commands, but to do it 
therefore because he commands it, in sincere 
obedience to him and his supreme authority 
over all things. Unless they do that, they 
have no ground to expect anything from him 
for what they do, but wrath and judgment for 
not doing it as they ought. And how much 
soever they do, and how well soever they do 
it, he is not obliged to them, but they to him 



122 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

for it ; it being only by his power they can do 
it at all, and by his grace only they do it well. 
And therefore, if he consider them for their do- 
ing their duty to him, they must ascribe it 
wholly to his free grace and mercy in Jesus 
Christ, which, whether he is pleased to vouch- 
safe unto them or no, they are still bound to 
obey and serve him as much as if he did ; and 
that too, not with respect to their own profit, 
but to his will and pleasure. 

I speak not this, as if we could ever serve 
God for naught. For we can never do any- 
thing for him, but it will most certainly re- 
dound by his goodness to our advantage. But 
I speak it only to show the vanity of this ex- 
cuse that some men make for their neglecting 
their public devotions, because they have been 
sometimes at them, but do not perceive them- 
selves any better for it. But, after all, I am 
much of their mind. I do not think that they 
are or can be much the better, for attending 
upon the public worship of God only some- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 123 

times. For it is plain, that they who do it 
only sometimes, do it only by the by, when 
they have no great matter else to do. They 
do not make it their work or business, and 
therefore cannot expect any reward for it ; nor 
get any good at all, much less so much as to 
be made better by it. 

The solemn praying and praising God, and 
reading, and hearing his most holy word read, 
and so his divine will published and declared in 
his own house, by one of his own ministers, 
are the ordinary means of grace. But they 
work not by any virtue inherent in themselves, 
but by the power of Christ's Holy Spirit, which, 
according to his promise, abides continually in 
his Church, assisting and actuating the said 
means, when duly administered in it, so as to 
make them effectual to the end for which they 
were ordained. And therefore, they who 
would attain that end, must use those means, 
not only now and then, but constantly, or at 
least as often as they can. They must " watch 



124 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

daily at the gates of wisdom, and wait at the 
posts of her doors, if ever they desire to be ad- 
mitted in," Prov. viii. 34. They must live 
continually under the influences of God's Holy 
Spirit, moving upon their souls, as he did upon 
the waters in the creation, till he hath brought 
them into order, and created them again in 
Jesus Christ unto good works. Otherwise they 
have no ground to expect to be made new 
creatures. It is not a man's going into the 
right way sometimes, but his walking in it, 
that will bring him to his journey's end. Our 
public devotions are the way ; the right way 
that leads to the grace of God : but he that 
would come at the end, so as to have the grace 
of God always sufficient for him ; he must not 
only step into this way sometimes, but he must 
keep always in it, as much as it is possible, so 
as to let slip no opportunity he can get, of go- 
ing to the house of God at the hour of prayer. 
Neither is that all : it is not enough to go into 
the house of God at the hour of prayer, but 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 125 

when he is there he must do the work of that 
time and place, and nothing else. He must 
not stand looking about him, as if he had no- 
thing to do there ; neither must he suffer his 
thoughts to wander about upon other things, 
like those the Prophet speaks of, saying, "And 
they come unto thee as the people cometh, and 
they sit before thee as my people, and they 
hear thy words, but they will not do them, for 
with their mouth they show much love, but 
their heart goeth after their covetousness," 
Ezek. xxxiii. 31. Such people had as good 
be out of the Church as in it, for any good they 
either do or get there. Indeed they are not 
wholly in it ; only their worser part, their bo- 
dies are there, their souls are at home, in their 
shops, among their chapmen or neighbors, or 
running about the country, perhaps as far as 
the Indies, minding their affairs there. And 
how can such people expect to be ever the 
better for being in God's house, when they af- 
front him to his face, making a show as if they 



126 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

served him, when really they are about other 
business ? Yet this is the case of most of those 
who go thither only sometimes ; for not being 
used to that kind of work, they do not know 
how to set about it, much less to keep their 
minds so intent upon it as is necessary to the 
due performance of it. 

The work we have to do in God's house, is 
a great work, the greatest we can ever do ; it 
is God's own work, the work he tells us to do 
for himself, even to serve, and worship, and 
glorify him, that made both our souls and bo- 
dies ; and therefore both our souls and bodies 
must be wholly employed in it. As for our 
bodies, he hath given us this general rule, 
" Keep thy foot when thou goest into the 
house of God," Eccles. v. 1, that is, look to 
thy ways, take care of thy outward carriage 
and deportment ; see thou behavest thyself in 
God's house as becometh one who believeth 
himself to be in the presence of the greatest 
person in the world. For so we are whenso- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 127 

ever we meet together in God's house, we are 
in his special presence. He himself hath said, 
that he is in the midst of us ; and therefore we 
are bound to believe it ; and to show we do so 
by all such reverent and humble gestures before 
him, as we should certainly use if we saw him 
with our bodily eyes. Especially when we pray 
unto him, we must do it upon our knees, as 
we should if we put up a petition but to an 
earthly prince. How much more to the King 
of all kings ! And when we praise his holy 
name, although we do it standing, yet that also 
must be done in such a posture of adoration, as 
may testify our fear and reverence of his di- 
vine majesty. Some perhaps may think these 
to be mere ceremonies ; but I am sure, that 
kneeling and bowing to Almighty God, is that 
which the holy Scriptures mean by worship- 
ping of him, and therefore forbid us to do it to 
any in a religious manner, but to the true God. 
And as this is the way to worship God with 
our bodies, so it is the best means we can use, 



128 PUBLIC TRAYER. 

whereby to keep our souls too in a pious and 
devout temper before him. For by this means 
we are all the while put in mind of that glorious 
person we are speaking to, and of the great 
work we are about ; which otherwise we 
should be very apt to forget : as we have too 
much cause to fear they do, who speak to God 
in the same posture as they do to one another. 
I say, speak, not pray, for that is the work of 
the heart as well as of the mouth. And if their 
hearts were upon God, while they are speak- 
ing to him, I do not see how it is possible for 
them not to fall down and worship before him. 
But we must remember, that " God is a 
spirit, and they that worship Ihim, must wor- 
ship him in spirit and in truth," John iv. 24, 
that is, at the same time that they worship 
God with their bodies, they must do it also 
in their spirits, without which all their bodily 
worship will signify nothing. For worship, 
properly so called, is nothing else but some out- 
ward sign of our inward fear of God. But 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 129 

where there is no fear of God in the spirit, 
there cannot be truly any outward sign of it. 
And therefore such cannot be said to worship 
God in truth, who do not worship him in their 
spirits as well as with their bodies. 

Here then is the great task we have to do in 
all our public devotions, even to keep our spir- 
its or hearts in a right posture all the while 
that we are before God, who sees them and 
takes special notice of all their motions : that 
we may pray with the spirit , and pray with the 
understanding also, as St. Paul did, 1 Cor. xiv. 
15. I call this a great task, because I know 
that it is the hardest work we have to do. Our 
thoughts being very quick and nimble, so un- 
constant and desultory, that it is difficult to 
keep them close to the work we are about, so 
as to serve the Lord without distraction. But 
it is a thing that must be done, if we desire to 
receive any real benefit and comfort from our 
devotions. And blessed be God, by his assis- 
tance we may all do it if we will but set our- 
11 



130 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

selves in good earnest about it, and observe 
these few rules, which may be very helpful 
unto us in it. 

First, when you go to the house of God at 
the hour of prayer, be sure to leave all worldly 
cares and business behind you, entertaining 
yourselves as ye go along, with these or such 
like sentences of scripture ; " Like as the 
hart desireth the water brooks, so ]ongeth my 
soul after thee, O God. My soul is athirst for 
God, yea, even for the living God. When 
shall I come to appear before the presence of 
God ?" Psal. xlii. 1,2. " O how amiable are 
thy dwellings, thou Lord of hosts ! My soul 
hath desire and longing to enter into the courts 
of the Lord. My heart and my flesh rejoice 
in the living God," Psal. lxxxiv. 1,2. " We 
will go into his tabernacle, and fall low on our 
knees before his footstool," Psal. cxxxii. 7. 

When ye come into the Church, say with 
Jacob, " How dreadful is this place ! This is 
none other than the house of God ; and this is 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 131 

the gate of heaven," Gen. xxviii. 17, or some- 
thing to that purpose. And as soon as ye can 
get an opportunity, prostrate yourselves upon 
your knees before the Master of the house, 
the great God of heaven, humbly beseeching 
him to unite your hearts unto himself, to 
cleanse your thoughts by the inspiration of 
hisJHoly Spirit, to open your eyes, and to mani- 
fest himself unto you, and to assist you with 
such a measure of grace in offering up these 
your spiritual sacrifices, that they be accepta- 
ble to him by Jesus Christ. 

And now set yourselves in good earnest, as 
in God's sight, keeping your eye only upon 
him, looking upon him as observing what you 
think as well as what you say or do, all the 
while you are before him. 

While one or more of the sentences out of 
God's holy Word (wherewith we very properly 
begin our devotions to him) are reading, appre- 
hend it as spoken by God himself at first, and 
now repeated in your ears to put you in mind i 



132 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

of something which he would have you to be- 
lieve or do upon this occasion. 

While the exhortation is reading, hearken 
diligently to it, and take particular notice of 
every word and expression in it, as contrived 
on purpose to prepare thee for the service of 
God, by possessing your minds with a due sense 
of his special presence with you, and of the 
great ends of your coming before him at this 
time. 

While you are confessing your sins with your 
mouth, be sure to do it also in your hearts, 
calling to mind every one as many as he can of 
those particular sins which he hath committed, 
either by doing what he ought not to do, or not 
doing what he ought, so as to repent sincerely 
of them, and steadfastly to resolve never to com- 
mit them any more. 

While the Minister is pronouncing the abso- 
lution in the name of God, every one should lay 
hold upon it for himself, so as firmly to believe 
that upon true repentance and faith in Christ, 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 133 

he is now discharged and absolved from all his 
sins, as certainly as if God himself had declared 
it with his own mouth, as he hath often done 
it before, and now by his ministers. 

While you, together with the Minister, are 
repeating the psalms or hymns to the honor and 
glory of God, observe the Ministers part as 
well as your own ; and lift up your hearts to- 
gether with your voices to the highest pitch 
you can, in acknowledging, magnifying, and 
praising the infinite wisdom, and power, and 
goodness, and glory of the most high God, in 
all his Vorks, the wonders that he hath done 
and still doth for the children of men, and for 
you among the rest. 

While God's Word is read in either of the 
chapters, whether of the Old or New Testa- 
ment, " receive it not as the word of men, but 
(as it is in truth) the Word of God, which ef- 
fectually worketh in you that believe," 1 Thess. 
ii. 13. And, therefore, hearken to it with the 
same attention, reverence, and faith, as you 



134 PUBLIC PRAYEH. 

would have done if you had stood by mount 
Sinai) when God proclaimed the law, and by 
our Saviour's side, when he published the gos- 
pel. 

While the prayers or collects are reading, 
although you ought not to repeat them aloud, 
to the disturbance of other people, yet you 
must repeat them in your hearts, your minds 
accompanying the Minister from one prayer to 
another, and from one part of each prayer to 
the other, all along with affections suitable to 
the matter sounding in your ears, humbly ador- 
ing and admiring God, according to the names, 
properties, or works which are attributed to 
him at the beginning of each prayer, earnestly 
desiring the good things which are asked of 
him in the body of it, for yourselves or others ; 
and steadfastly believing in Jesus Christ for his 
granting of them, when he is named, as he is 
at the end of every prayer, except that of St. 
Chrysostome^ because that is directed immedi- 
ately to Christ himself, as promising that 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 135 

u when two or three are gathered together in 
his name, he will grant their requests," which 
is, therefore, very properly put at the end of 
all our daily prayers, and also of the litany 
(most part whereof is directed also to our Sa- 
viour), that when we have made all our com- 
mon supplications unto him, we may act our 
faith in him again for God's granting of them 
according to his said promise ; and so may be 
dismissed with the grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the love of God the Father, and the 
communion or fellowship of the Holy Ghost ; 
under which are comprehended all the bless- 
ings that we have or can desire to make us 
completely happy both now and for ever. 

After the blessing it may be expedient still 
to continue for some time upon your knees, 
humbly beseeching Almighty God to pardon 
what he hath seen amiss in you since you came 
into his presence : and that he would be gra- 
ciously pleased to hear the prayers, and to ac- 
cept of the praises which you have now offered 



136 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

up unto him, through the merits of Jesus Christ 
our only Mediator and Advocate. 

These few things I thought good to lay 
before you, as being of great use towards the 
right performance of your public devotions, so 
as that they may be both acceptable to God 
and profitable to yourselves. I fear some may 
think it hard to keep their minds intent so long 
together ; but they can do it much longer upon 
worldly affairs, and therefore may in this too, if 
they will. If they will. There lies the main 
stress of the business. If men will resolve by 
God's assistance to fix their minds upon him 
and his service while they are before him, they 
may certainly do it in a high degree. As I 
do not doubt but many here present have found 
by their own experience. Such, I mean, who 
have been long accustomed to it. And though 
to others it may seem difficult at first, yet by 
use it will soon grow easy, if they will be per- 
suaded to make trial of it, which I wish hear- 
tily you would all do. Try a little what it is to 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



137 



go to the house of God every day at the hours of 
prayer, and there to perform your devotions to 
him with all your hearts as near as you can. 
Do but use yourselves to it for one quarter or 
half a year 3 and I dare say that you will find it 
not only easy, but so pleasant and profitable to 
your souls, that you will never leave it off so 
long as you are able to do it. And though you 
cannot do everything so well as you would at 
first, let not that discourage you ; but strive to 
do it as well as you can ; and then by his assist- 
ance who is there specially present with you, 
by degrees you will overcome all difficulties, 
and learn to use those blessed means of grace, 
so as to grow in grace and in the knowledge of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ every day 
more and more. 

And, indeed, unless you do that, you may 
be confident that you do not use them aright. 
For there are so many promises made to them 
by him who cannot lie, that if there be^no fail- 
ure in the use, they can never fail of their effect. 



138 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

Insomuch that if notwithstanding your frequent- 
ing our daily prayers, you shall still continue 
in any known sin, if you do not gather strength 
to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil ; 
if you do not increase in the knowledge and 
love of God, in temperance, patience, meek- 
ness, and humility, in justice, charity and all 
manner of virtue ; in short, if you do not live 
more soberly, more righteously, and more godly 
in this present world than otherwise you would, 
you may be sure, that although you live under 
the means of grace, you do not make that use 
of them which you might and ought to do ; 
though you seem to perform your devotions to 
God, yet really you do it not. How oft soever 
your bodies may be at Church, your hearts are 
always somewhere else. And so you come to 
no purpose at all ; or rather to very ill purpose. 
For this is plainly to mock God, and to play 
the hypocrites with him, making as if you had 
a mind to serve and glorify him, when you mind 
nothing less, but rather do him all the disser- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 



139 



vice and dishonor that you can, by giving occa- 
sion to the enemy to blaspheme his holy name, 
and to think it is to no purpose to serve God, 
seeing you who seem to do it are as bad as other 
people. And besides hereby you may dis- 
courage many who otherwise would be in- 
clined to set upon a pious and religious course 
of life. For when they observe any of you 
who come to Church every day, guilty of the 
same vices as they are who never come at all, 
they will be tempted to* judge that all are so ; 
and by consequence that there is nothing in 
devotion but a mere outward show and appear- 
ance of religion; and that they who go to 
Church, do it not to serve God, but themselves ; 
to get themselves the name and reputation of 
being pious and godly men, and under that 
cloak to hide their faults, and commit all man- 
ner of villany, as some sort of men we know, 
of later years, have done, to the scandal and 
reproach of the Christian religion. So that by 
this means your very coming to Church would 



140 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

be more for the devil's service than for God's. 
The devil always had and always will have a 
spite at our public devotions, and catch at all 
opportunities to throw dirt in their face, to 
make them appear as deformed and ugly as he 
can. And if any of those who frequent God's 
house and seem to serve him there, should 
notwithstanding lead wicked and profane lives, 
they would promote the same hellish design of 
bringing devotion into contempt and scorn, and 
so would do the devil's work and must expect 
their wages from him at last. 

" But,beloved, we are persuaded better things 
of you, and things that accompany salvation, 
though we thus speak," Heb. vi. 9. And al- 
though some of those who come to prayers only 
now and then when they have nothing else to 
do, may perhaps be the devil's drudges in this 
matter ; yet I cannot imagine how they should 
be so who make it their business to serve God 
publicly every day. For that must needs give 
check to any evil motions, and leave such a tine- 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 141 

ture upon their minds, that will break and show 
itself in all holy conversation and godliness. 
And therefore I speak this only to show how 
much it concerns you to take care how you live, 
and for that purpose how you pray : that your 
lives may in all points be such as becometh the 
gospel of Christ ; that you may adorn your pro- 
fession with all virtuous and good works ; that 
you may shine as lights in the world ; so that 
men may see there is more in going every day 
to Church, than they are aware of, and so may 
be persuaded to follow you thither at the hours 
of prayer. 

But for that purpose, whenever ye go thither 
ye must be sure to do the work you go about 
as well as possibly you can. For the better 
you serve God there, the better you will do it 
everywhere else ; the more serious and hearty 
you are at your public devotions, the more right- 
eous and holy you will be in all manner of con- 
versation both towards God and towards men. 
For as these are in themselves some of those 



142 PUBLIC PRAYER. 

duties which we owe to God, so they are the 
means too which he hath appointed whereby to 
give us grace to perform all the rest. And the 
more carefully we use the means, the more grace 
we shall get by them. So that by this means 
we may " add to our faith, virtue ; and to virtue, 
knowledge ; and to knowledge, temperance ; 
and to temperance, patience ; and to patience, 
godliness ; and to godliness, brotherly kindness ; 
and to brotherly kindness, charity," 2. Pet. i. 
5, 6, 7. Neither shall we only add one grace 
to another, but also one degree of every grace 
unto another. " We shall go from strength to 
strength, till we come in the unity of the faith, 
and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ," Eph. iv. 13. 

This is a great truth. But I would not have 
you take it only from me, but from yourselves. 
And for that purpose make the experiment. 
Take all occasions you can get of going daily 
into the house of God, at the hours of prayer y 



PUBLIC PRAYER. 143 

and to his table when his supper is there admin- 
istered, and perform the several duties which 
are there required of you, with all the care and 
diligence that you can. Do but this, and you 
will find all that I have said to be not only true, 
but short of what you yourselves will feel ; and 
so will be soon convinced by your own experi- 
ence, that weekly sacraments, and daily pray- 
ers, are the greatest blessings you can have on 
this side heaven, and the best way to bring you 
thither, through the merits of Jesus Christ to 
whom, &c. 



THE 



GREAT NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE 



Jnqntnt (Eommuntott, 



DESIGNED TO REVIVE 



PRIMITIVE PIETY. 



THE 

GREAT NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE 

OF 

FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



1 Cor. xi. 26. 

For as often as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye do 
show the Lord's death till he come. 

The Lord's death here spoken of, is the death 
of the Lord, the Almighty and Eternal Son 
of God ; that death which he suffered in the 
nature, and in the stead of mankind in general, 
and particularly of us who are here present ; 
that death, whereby he expiated our sins, and 
made complete satisfaction to the divine truth 
and justice for them : that death, whereby he 
appeased the wrath which He that made us 
had justly conceived against us, and hath recon- 
ciled Him again unto us : that death whereby 
he delivered us from the slavery of sin and 



148 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Satan, and asserted us into the glorious liberty 
of the sons of God : that death, whereby he 
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made himself a curse for us : that death, where- 
by he purchased for us both pardon, and peace, 
and mercy, and grace, and power to eschew 
evil and do good, and all the blessings we can 
ever have or desire, either in this world or the 
next : that death, by virtue whereof he entered 
into heaven, " now to appear in the presence 
of God for us," and therefore " is able to save 
to the utmost them that come unto God by him, 
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for 
them," Heb. vii. 25. This is that Lord's 
death, which the Apostle here saith we show, 
" as often as we eat the bread and drink the 
cup" he speaks of in the verses before my text, 
where he saith, that the " Lord Jesus the same 
night in which he was betrayed, took bread, 
and when he had given thanks he brake it, and 
said, take, eat, this is my body which is broken 
for you ; this do in remembrance of me. After 






FREQUENT COMMUNION. 149 

the same manner also he took the cup, when 
he had supped, saying, this cupjs the New 
Testament in my blood : this do ye, as oft as 
ye drink it, in remembrance of me." In 
which words we have Christ's own institution 
of the sacrament of his last supper, together 
with the end of it declared by himself, saying 
at the institution of the bread, This do in re- 
membrance of me : and again at the cup, This 
do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me, 
that is (as is signified in the institution itself) in 
remembrance of my body as broken, and my blood 
as shed, and so in remembrance of me, as dying 
for the sins of the world, and yours amongst the 
rest. And that this is the great end of this holy 
institution, the Apostle farther proves and ex- 
plains in the words of my text, from this reason, 
because hereby we show the Lord's death; the 
bread shows the breaking of his body, the cup 
shows the shedding of his blood, and so both 
together show the death he suffered for us. 
For as often, saith he, as ye eat this bread and 



150 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

drink this cup, ye do show the Lord*s death till 
he come. 

In which words we may first observe, that 
every time that the sacrament of the Lord's 
supper is administered, his death is thereby 
shown and declared to all that are there pre- 
sent. As when the Jews ate the paschal lamb, 
the master of the family declared the reasons 
why they ate it, why they ate it with bitter 
herbs, and why with unleavened bread, and the 
like. So here, when we eat the bread and 
drink the cup according to Christ's institution, 
we thereby declare the reasons of it, though 
not by words yet by the very act itself, and the 
several circumstances of it. By the breaking 
of the bread, we declare Christ's body to be 
broken and wounded to death \ by the cup, we 
declare his blood to be shed or poured out for 
the sins of the world, and by distributing both 
the bread and the cup to each communicant 
apart, we declare to every one particularly that 
Christ died for his sins, and that he may be 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



151 



saved by Christ's death, if he will but receive 
and apply it to himself as he ought, by a quick 
and lively faith. 

In the next place, we may here observe, that 
the Apostle doth not say that Christ's death is 
repeated, or that he is offered up again every 
time this sacrament is administered, but only 
that the Lord's death is shown by it. And, 
therefore, that that is not, as the Papists ab- 
surdly imagine, a propitiatory sacrifice for the 
living and the dead, but only commemorative and 
declarative of that one sacrifice which Christ 
once offered to be a propitiation for the sins of 
the whole world. We may here likewise ob- 
serve, that the Apostle doth not say, as often 
as ye eat this bread, ye show the Lord's death, 
but ye do it, as often as ye eat this bread and 
drink this cup. And, therefore, unless both 
kinds be administered, as Christ's institution is 
not observed, so neither is the end of it attained ; 
for his death is not shown by any one, but by 
both together. 



152 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Moreover we may observe, that the Apostle 
here plainly calls it bread, and the cup, or 
wine ; not the very body or blood of Christ, 
yea, he saith, it is bread we eat, and it is the 
cup or wine we drink, and therefore we do 
not eat the very body that hung upon the 
cross, nor drink the blood which was there spilt 
for us, but only in a sacramental sense, which 
quite overthrows the doctrine of transubstan- 
tlatlon. 

Again, we may from hence observe, that 
this was no temporary institution, which was 
to continue only for some time, but to the end 
of the world, or as the Apostle here expresseth 
it, till He, our Lord and Saviour, come. As 
from the beginning of the world, as often as 
they offered, according to its first institution, 
any bloody sacrifice to God, they thereby fore- 
showed the death of Christ, typified by it, un- 
til his first coming into the world to save it. 
So since that time, as often as we eat this bread, 
and drink this cup, according to Christ's own 






FREQUENT COMMUNION. 153 

institution, we show forth his death all along un- 
til his second coming into the world to judge it. 
So that it is now by this sacrament that man- 
kind is and always must be put in mind of 
their Saviour, and what he suffered for them, 
and therefore this can never be laid aside, but 
must continue in the Church to the end of the 
world. Neither can that be reckoned any 
part of Christ's Church, where this his own 
most holy institution, is rejected, disused, or 
never observed as it ought. 

Lastly, we may here observe, that as this 
sacrament is to continue always in the Church, 
so it must be often repeated by the same per- 
sons in it. The other sacrament, even bap- 
tism, is likewise to be always administered in 
the Church, but it can be administered but 
once to one and the same person ; but the 
Apostle here speaking of the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, saith to the same persons, " As 
often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup :" 
and to the same purpose our Lord himself, in 



154 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

the institution of the cup, saith, u This do ye 
as often as ye drink it :" plainly implying, that 
this should be often done by those who are 
once admitted into his Church : as a man can 
be born but once : but when he is once born, 
he must often eat and drink such things as God 
hath appointed for the preservation of his 
natural life ; so when a man is once regenerate 
and born again of water and of the Spirit, he 
must often eat this bread and drink this cup, as 
the great means appointed by Christ himself 
for the preservation of his spiritual life ; which 
can never be supported aright without this 
spiritual food, no more than the natural life can 
without bodily sustenance. 

This therefore is that which I intend, by 
God's assistance, in a more especial manner to 
speak to at this time. And it is but time to 
say all we can of it, when this holy sacrament 
is so generally neglected, as it now is (to our 
shame be it spoken), all the kingdom over. 
Blessed be God, except some few heathens 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 155 

which are among us, such I mean as were 
never yet baptized, the nation in general is 
Christian, the people all profess Christ's reli- 
gion, and have it established among them by 
civil laws and sanctions : they are all admitted 
into Christ's Church and hope to be saved in 
it : they all believe him to be the only Saviour 
of the world, and therefore expect salvation 
only from him. They all know too, or at least 
have heard, that he instituted this holy sacra- 
ment, and commanded them to receive it in 
remembrance of him : and yet after all, they 
regard it no more than as if it had never been 
instituted by him, no more than as if it was no 
matter whether they ever remembered him or 
no. I need not go far for instances. In this 
place where it is as constantly administered, 
and as much frequented as in any part of the 
kingdom, there are several who receive it but 
very seldom ; some never, unless it be to qualify 
them for an office ; many, a great many I fear 
of those who are now present, never yet re- 



156 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

ceived it at all : but though they be twenty, 
thirty, forty, fifty years old, and upwards, yet 
have lived all this while in the neglect of this 
divine institution, having never been so much 
as once at our Lord's table, nor knowing what 
it is to partake of that most blessed body and 
blood which was broken and shed for them. 
And so it is in all parts of the kingdom, which 
is a very sad and melancholy consideration. 
They who have any love either for God or their 
neighbors, cannot but be grieved at their hearts 
to think of it. We have only one Saviour in 
the world, and he hath instituted only one sa- 
crament to put us always in mind of him, and 
yet that people, that Christians should slight 
that ! What shall I say ? I know not how to 
express their folly and ingratitude, much less 
the dismal consequences of it. But how to 
remedy it, I know not. I have done what I 
could : I have taken all occasions to convince 
you of your sin and danger in neglecting this 
blessed sacrament, and to persuade you to a 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



157 



more frequent receiving of it, but I see nothing 
will do : indeed nothing can do it, but the Al- 
mighty power^of God, whom I therefore beseech 
of his infinite mercy, to open men's eyes, that 
they may see the things that belong to their 
everlasting peace, before they be hid from them. 
And then I am sure this sacrament would be as 
much frequented, as it hath been hitherto neg- 
lected. But seeing he is usually pleased to do 
this great work by the ministry of his word, I 
shall make it my business at this time, in his 
name, to put you in mind of your duty and in- 
terest in this particular, and so set before you 
such reasons why you ought to take all oppor- 
tunities of receiving the mystical body and 
blood of Christ your Saviour, as I hope by his 
blessing may prevail with many to do it : God 
grant it may do so with all that hear me at this 
time. 

For this purpose, therefore, I desire you to 
consider, first, that this is Christ's own institu- 
tion and command. He, " who being in the 



158 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

form of God, thought it no robbery to be equal 
with God, and yet made himself of no reputa- 
tion for your sakes." He, who loved you so 
as to give himself for you. He, who laid down 
his own life to redeem and save you. He, the 
very night before he died for you, He then in- 
stituted this holy sacrament, and He then said 
to all that hope to be saved by him, and to you 
among others, " Do this in remembrance of 
me." And " do this as oft as ye drink it, in 
remembrance of me ;" what ? and will you 
that hope to be saved by him, will you never 
do this at all ? Or only now and then when 
perhaps you have nothing elsejo do ? How 
then can ye hope to be saved by Him ? Do ye 
think that He will save you, whether ye ob- 
serve his commands or no ? And which of all 
his commands can ye ever observe, if ye do not 
observe this, which is so plain, so easy, so 
useful, and so necessary for you ? No, deceive 
not yourselves : he that came into the world, 
and died on purpose to save you, ye may be 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 159 

confident would never have required you to do 
this, and as often as you do it to remember 
Him, but that it is necessary for your salvation 
that ye do it, and that ye do it as often as ye 
can in remembrance of Him. And if it had 
been necessary in no other, as it is in many 
respects, yet his very commanding it makes it 
so to you, and to your salvation. For as He 
is the only " author of eternal salvation," He 
is so only to " those who obey Him," Heb. v. 
9, that is, " to those who observe all things 
whatsoever He hath commanded," Matt, xxviii. 
20. But this is one of those things which he 
hath commanded ; and therefore unless you do 
this, you do not obey him, and so have no 
ground to expect salvation from him. He him- 
self hath told you in effect that he will not 
save you, in that he said, " Except ye repent 
ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii. 3, 5. 
But ye all know that he who lives in any wil- 
ful and known sin, or in the wilful neglect of 
any known duty, he hath not yet repented, and 



160 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

turned to God, but is still in his natural estate, 
in a state of sin and damnation. And if he 
happens to do so, he must inevitably perish ; 
there is no help in the world for it. 

Wherefore, my brethren, ye had need look 
about you. Christ your Saviour hath express- 
ly commanded you often to receive the sacra- 
ment of his body and blood in remembrance of 
Him. And therefore you who never yet re- 
ceived it, have lived all this while in the wil- 
ful breach of a known law, and by consequence 
in a wilful and known sin : and you who re- 
ceive it but seldom, do not fully obey or come 
up to the law, which plainly requires you to 
do it often : at least if it may be had. It is 
true, should God in his providence cast you 
upon a place, where you could not receive it 
if you would, I do not doubt but he would ac- 
cept of your earnest desires of it, as well as if 
ye did receive it, and would make up the great 
losses you sustained in your spiritual estate for 
want of it' some other way. But blessed be 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 161 

His great name, this is not your case. For he 
in his good providence hath so ordered it, that 
you live in a place where this holy sacrament 
is actually celebrated every Lord's day, and 
may be so, if there be occasion, every day in 
the year. Our Church requires the first, and 
hath provided for the other, by ordering that 
the same collect, epistle, and gospel which is 
appointed for the Sunday, shall serve all the 
week after: and by consequence the whole 
communion service, of which they are a part. 
And therefore unless you receive it, and re- 
ceive it often too, you live in the gross neglect, 
if not in a plain contempt of Christ's command ; 
as you will one day find to your shame and 
sorrow. For how well soever ye may other- 
wise live, this one sin is enough to ruin and de- 
stroy you for ever. For as St. James saith, 
" whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet 
offend in one point,he is guilty of all, "Jam. ii. 10. 
And therefore whatsoever else ye do, if ye do 
not this, but offend in this one point, you are 



162 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

liable to all the punishments that are threatened 
in the law of God. Neither is there any way 
to avoid them, except you repent and turn 
from this, as well as from all other sins. 

And that ye may not think that the receiv- 
ing of this blessed sacrament only now and then, 
as perhaps two or three times a year, will ex- 
cuse you from the imputation of living in the 
neglect of Christ's command ; I desire you to 
consider how the Apostles themselves and the 
primitive Christians understood it. Which they 
sufficiently declared by their practice. For 
when our Lord was gone to heaven, and had, 
according to his promise, sent down the Holy 
Spirit upon his Apostles, and by that means 
brought into this Church about three thousand 
souls in one day, it is said of them, " That they 
continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine 
and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and in 
prayer," Acts ii. 42. And of all that believed, 
it is said, " That they continued daily with one 
accord in the temple, and breaking bread from 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 163 

house to house, did eat their meat with glad- 
ness and singleness of heart," v. 46. Where 
we may observe, first, that by breaking of bread 
in the New Testament is always meant the ad- 
ministration of the Lord's Supper. Secondly, 
this they are said to have done, ^ax' dcxov y from 
house to house, as the Syriac and Arabic ver- 
sions have it, and as the phrase ^ar' omov is 
used by the Apostle himself, Rom. xvi. 5, 
1 Cor. xvi. 19 ; that is, they did it either in 
some private house, where there was a Church, 
or more probably in some of the houses or 
chambers belonging to the temple, where they 
daily continued. Thirdly, as they continued 
daily in the temple, at the hours of prayer, to 
perform their solemn devotions there, so they 
daily received the holy sacrament, and ate this 
spiritual food with gladness and singleness of 
heart. This being indeed the chief part of their 
devotions ; whensoever they could meet toge- 
ther to perform them. Especially upon the 
Lord's day, as the Holy Ghost himself informs 



164 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

us, saying, " And upon the first day of the 
week, when the disciples came together to 
break bread, Pauljpreached unto them, being 
ready to depart on the morrow," Acts xx. 7, 
where we see they did not only break bread, 
or administer the sacrament of our Lord's Sup- 
per upon the first day of the week, which we 
from St. John call the Lordh day, but upon 
the day they came together for that end and 
purpose. It is true, St. Paul being to go away 
next day, he took that opportunity when they 
were met together for that end, to give them a 
sermon. But that was not the end of their 
meeting together at that time. They did not 
come to hear a sermon, though St. Paul him- 
self was to preach, but they came together to 
administer and receive Christ's mystical body 
and blood, which plainly shows that this was 
the great work they did every Lord's Day : 
and that they came together then on purpose 
to meet with Christ and to partake of him at 
his own table. And seeing that the law itself 



FREQUENT COMMUNION, 165 

required, " that none should appear before the 
Lord empty," Exod. xxiii. 15, therefore St, 
Paul requires, that upon the first day of the 
week, when Christians thus met together to re- 
ceive the Sacrament, " every one should lay by 
him in store," as God prospered him, for pious 
and charitable uses, 1 Cor. xvi. 2. And hence 
proceeded that custom which is still continued 
in our Church, and ought to be so in all, that 
whensoever we appear before the Lord at his 
own table, we, every one according to his abili- 
ty, offer up something to him, of what he hath 
bestowed upon us, as our acknowledgment of 
his bounty to us, in giving us whatsoever we 
have, and of his infinite mercy in giving himself 
for us. 

Now seeing the Apostles themselves, and 
such as they first converted and instructed in 
the faith of Christ, usually received this holy 
sacrament every day in the week, and constantly 
upon the Lord's day, it cannot be doubted, but 
that they looked upon themselves as obliged by 



166 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Christ's command to do so ; and that when he 
said, Do this, as oft as ye doit in remembrance of 
me, his meaning and pleasure was, that they should 
often do it, its often as they met together to per- 
form their public devotions to him, if it was possible, 
or at least upon the Lord's day. And as this was 
the sense wherein the Apostles understood our 
Saviour's words ; so they transmitted the same 
together with the faith, to those who succeeded 
them. For Tertullian, who lived in the next 
century after the Apostles, saith, that the sac* 
rament of the Eucharist, in omnibus mandatum 
a Domino, etiam antelucanis coztibus, was com- 
manded by our Lord, to be celebrated in all 
Christian assemblies, even those which were 
held before day. Ter. de cor. mil. cap. 3. And 
before him Pliny the second, who was contem- 
porary with St. John, in the account he gave 
of the Christian's manners to the emperor Tra- 
jan, saith among other things, " That they were 
wont upon a certain day, to meet together be- 
fore it was light, and to bind themselves by a 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 167 

sacrament, not to do any ill thing," Plin. Ep. 
1, 10, cap. 97. Which can be understood only 
of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as ad- 
ministered and received by them upon the Lord's 
day. And Justin Martyr himself, who lived in 
the next age after, in the apology he wrote to 
Antoninus Pius, in behalf of the Christians, giv- 
ing a particular account of what they did in their 
public congregations, saith, that rrj t# ^Us 
leyofievy ^fisga upon that which is called the 
day of the sun, or Sunday, all Christians that 
live either in the cities, or in the country, meet 
together : where they hear the writings of the 
Prophets and Apostles read, and an exhortation 
made to them: and then they having all joined 
together in their common prayers, bread and 
wine is brought and consecrated, or blessed by 
the president or minister; and distributed to 
every one there present, and carried by deacons 
to such as were absent. Kal ^ diddocrig nut r\ 
fieT&lrnpig <kn6 t&v tv%otQi,c;?]devTCov ex&^co ywe- 
tav. And the distribution and participation of 



168 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

the consecrated elements is made to every one. 
Just. Mart. Apol. 2. And this food, saith he, 
Kallixai nag' rtfiiv 'Ev/ag^ia^ is called by US 
the Eucharist. From whence it appears, that 
in these days, every one that was at prayers and 
sermon, received also the holy sacrament, at 
least upon the Lord's day. None offered to go 
out till that was over : or if they did so, they 
were cast out of the Church, as not worthy to 
be called Christians ; as appears from the Apos- 
tolical canons made or collected much about 
that time, or soon after : one whereof runs thus, 
n&vjag t% 'eiGlovxag mg&g, &c. All believers 
that come to Church and hear jthe Scriptures, 
but don't stay to join in the prayers, and the holy 
communion, ought to be excommunicated, as 
bringing confusion into the Church, Can. Apos. 
9. It was then, it seems, reckoned a great dis- 
order and confusion for any to go out of the 
Church, as they now commonly do, till the 
whole service, of which the communion was 
the principal part, was all over: and if any did 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 169 

so, they were judged unfit to come to Church 
or keep company with Christians any longer. 
This was the discipline of the primitive and 
apostolic Church. This was the piety of the 
first Christians : and it continued, in a great 
measure, for some ages, as might easily be 
shown. But this may be sufficient at present 
to prove, that the Apostles and primitive Chris- 
tians did not think that they observed our Lord's 
command in the institution of this holy sacra- 
ment aright, by receiving it only now and then. 
For as they would never have done it at all, but 
only in obedience unto that command, so in obe- 
dience to that command, they took all opportu- 
nities they could get of doing it ; at least they 
never omitted it upon the Lord's day. But upon 
that day, whatsoever they did besides, they al- 
ways did this in remembrance of what their 
great Lord and Saviour had done for them . And 
if we desire to be such Christians as they were, 
we must do as they did. We must after their 
pious example observe our Lord's command by 



170 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

eating, this bread and drinking this cup as often 
as we can ; lest otherwise we lose the benefit 
of that death He suffered for us, by our neglect- 
ing to do what he hath commanded in remem- 
brance of it. And verily to remember Christ 
and his death is a thing of far greater conse- 
quence than people are commonly aware of. 
The people of God under the law, by his own 
appointment, had it typified and represented to 
them every day in the year, by having two lambs 
offered up for a burnt-offering, the one in the 
morning , and the other in the evening, as a type 
of that Lamb of God which taketh away the sins 
of the world, Exod. xxix. 28, Num. xxviii. 3, 
John i. 29. These were offered every day be- 
sides the sin-offerings, peace-offerings, trespass- 
offerings, and such like, as were offered upon 
particular occasions. Wherefore these two 
lambs were called the continual burnt-offering, 
as being continually offered every day in the 
week. And upon the Sabbath day there were 
two more added, Num. xxviii. 9. So that upon 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 171 

every Sabbath day in the year there were four 
lambs offered, that they might be sure at least 
upon that day, to think of that grand sacrifice 
which was to be offered up for them. And it 
may not be amiss to observe, that every one of 
those lambs had a meat-offering and a drink- 
offering to attend it. A meat-offering made of 
flour, and the drink-offering of wine ; which are 
both the same elements which Christ himself 
instituted to signify his body and blood. And 
besides the burnt-offerings, meat-offerings and 
drink-offerings every Sabbath day, the high- 
priest was to set the shew-bread upon the holy 
table, and to put frankincense thereon ; which 
was to continue there before the Lord till the 
next Sabbath, when the priests had ate the 
bread, and burnt the frankincense lazekarah 
for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto 
the Lord, Levit. ii. 4. 5, &c, Exod. xxv. 30. 
All which, as most things in the levitical law 
had doubtless some respect or other to Christ : 
as is intimated in the law itself, where it is said, 



172 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

that this shall be done by an everlasting covenant , 
Levit. xxiv. 9, even that which is founded in 
Christ. The bread (consisting of twelve loaves 
or cakes, according to the number of the tribes 
of Israel, and of Christ's Apostles) was set upon 
the table in two rows : which might put us in 
mind of the two natures in Christ, the bread of 
life which came down from heaven, John vi. 33, 
35. In Hebrew this is called lachempanim, the 
bread of the face, because it was to be set before 
the face of God, continually, Exod. xxv. 30, as 
Christ continually appeareth in the presence of 
God for us, Heb. ix. 24. Upon this bread was 
laid pure frankincense, called in Hebrew libhonah 
( Olibanum) from its whiteness ; by reason 
whereof it was used in sacrifices as a symbol of 
God's pardoning of sin, as it was likewise of his 
acceptance of what was done, by the sweet 
scent it had made when burnt. This was laid 
upon the bread, to be to it for a memorial, as the 
Hebrew words signify, to call to remembrance 
the offering made by fire unto the Lord ; that 






FREQUENT COMMUNION. 173 

is, the death of Christ, typified by all such offer- 
ings. The bread was to be eaten, not burnt : 
but the pure frankincense that was laid upon it, 
was to be burnt, and by its sweet smell call to 
mind the death of Christ, by virtue whereof God 
smells a sweet savor, or accepts of the sacri- 
fices and services we offer and perform to him, 
1 Pet. ii. 5. And all this was to be done, the 
bread to be eaten, the frankincense burnt, and 
new put in their places every sabbath day 
throughout the year ; that upon that day espe- 
cially men might be put in mind of their Saviour, 
and accordingly act their faith on him for their 
pardon and acceptance with God, 

There were many such ways whereby the 
people of God in those days were constantly put 
in mind of what the Saviour of the world was to 
do and suffer for them. All which are now laid 
aside, and only this one sacrament of his last 
supper instituted by himself in the room of them. 
This is now our Christian shew-bread, whereby 
we show the Lord's death till he come. This is 



174 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

our burnt-offering, our sin-offering, our trespass- 
offering, our thank-offering, our meat-offering, 
our drink-offering, and all the offerings required 
of us, whereby to commemorate our blessed 
Saviour, and what he hath done for us. And 
therefore, as the Jews were punctual and con- 
stant in observing all things prescribed to them 
for the same end, we certainly ought to do this 
as often as we can ; this one thing which an- 
swers the end of all their offerings, and yet hath 
neither the trouble, nor the charges, nor the dif- 
ficulty of any one of them. 

Especially considering that God would never 
have appointed so many waysjvvhereby to put 
them in mind of their Saviour, but that it was 
necessary for them to have him always in their 
minds. And it must needs be as necessary for 
us, as it was for them ; otherwise, he- who 
came into the world on purpose to save us, 
would never have commanded us to eat this 
bread and drink this cup in remembrance of 
him. But he hath commanded us not only to 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 175 

do it, but to do it for this very end, that we 
may remember him. And therefore we may 
be confident, that to remember him, is very 
necessary to our being saved by him ; and by 
consequence, that all who desire to be so in 
good earnest, must do this so often, as to keep 
him always fresh in their minds and memories. 
And the reason is plain ; for all the promises of 
salvation by Christ are made only to those who 
believe in him : but this believing in him, is 
not a transient act, or a thing to be done only 
once or twice : but it is to be the continual 
work and employment of our lives. As we 
must constantly believe what he hath taught, 
so we must constantly trust and depend on him 
for all things necessary to our salvation, accord- 
ing to the promises that he hath made us. He 
that does not do this cannot be truly said to be- 
lieve in Christ at all : or at least, not to any 
purpose. But it is impossible for us thus con- 
stantly to believe in Christ, without keeping 
him always in our minds. And it is as impos- 



176 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

sible for us to keep him thus always in our 
minds, without frequent receiving of this holy- 
sacrament : if we could have done so without 
it, Christ would never have appointed this sac- 
rament to put us in mind of him ; for he need 
not have done it. 

The plain case is this : there is no way where- 
by it is possible for any of us to be saved, but 
by Jesus Christ ; nor by him, without believ- 
ing in him. And therefore we had need use all 
the means we can for the exercising our faith 
in him, and keeping it alwaj^s fixed upon 
him. But we can by no means do it so ef- 
fectually, as by the frequent receiving of that 
holy sacrament which he himself ordained for 
that very purpose, that we might remember 
him so as to believe and trust on him for all 
things relating to our salvation. For he hath 
so ordered it, that this sacrament doth not 
bring him into our remembrance only in a 
slight and superficial manner, without making 
any impression upon our minds : but it exhib- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 177 

its and presents him to our very eyes as dying 
for our sins, or, to use the Apostle's words, 
" herein Jesus Christ is evidently set forth be- 
fore our eyes, as crucified among us," Gal, iii. 
1, whereby our minds are deeply affected, and 
our faith confirmed in him. All the promises 
which God hath made us in Christ being here- 
by sealed as it were and delivered to us in his 
blood. As the sacrament of circumcision is 
said to be a a token of the covenant betwixt God 
and man , Gen. xvii. 11, and a seal of the 
righteousness of faith , Rom. iv. 11, so the sac- 
rament of the Lord's Supper both signifies and 
seals to us the covenant of grace founded in the 
death of Christ, there represented before our 
eyes ; whereby our faith is strengthened, and 
we are able to look upon ourselves as entitled 
to, and interested in all the blessings which are 
promised in the said covenant, by the means of 
that body and blood which we there behold as 
broken and shed for us. For which purpose 
also Christ himself in the institution of it calls 



178 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

the signs by the name of the thing signified, 
saying, " This is my body which is broken for 
you, and this is my blood of the new testament 
which is shed for many for the remission of 
sins." 1 Cor. xi. 24, Matt. xxvi. 28. Where- 
by he fully assures us, that this is not common 
bread and wine, but his own body and blood, 
not in a carnal but in a spiritual or sacramental 
sense : so that by eating this bread and drinking 
this cup, we partake of his body and blood to 
all intents and purposes for which the one was 
broken and the other shed : and that too as 
much or rather more than we could have done 
it by eating his very body and drinking his 
very blood in a carnal and literal sense. To 
the same purpose is that of the Apostle, "the 
cup of blessing which we bless, is* it not the 
communion of the blood of Christ ? and the 
bread which we break, is it not the communion 
of the body of Christ?" 1. Cor. x. 16. 
Though it be not his very body and blood it- 
self, it is the communion of them, they are both 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 179 

communicated to us, so that, if we receive 
them as we ought by faith, we attain the end 
wherefore his body was broken and his blood 
shed, even the remission of our sins. Which 
is therefore particularly mentioned by himself 
in the institution of the cup. 

And this is that which our church teacheth 
in her catechism, saying, That the body and 
blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken and 
received by the faithful in the Lord^s Supper : by 
the faithful: by such as have, and act true 
faith, which, as the Apostle saith, " is the sub- 
stance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
not seen." By such the body and blood of Christ 
is verily and indeed received : and only by such. 
Others see nothing there but bread and wine ; 
but they who have such a faith in Christ's 
word, by it see his body and blood there : their 
faith itself being the very evidence thereof to 
them. The elements are not transubstantiated 
into the body and blood of Christ, as the Papists 
absurdly imagine : but the substance of the 



180 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

bread and wine still continues the same : and 
therefore without faith no man can receive 
any more than plain, though consecrated, bread 
and wine. But they who have, and at the same 
time act that faith which is the substance of 
things hoped for, dd by that verily and indeed 
receive the body and blood of Christ, according 
to his word, when he said, This is my body, and 
this is my blood. This Christ said : and this 
they believe : and by their believing it, have it 
verified to them. It is to them that body which 
was broken, and that blood which was shed for 
their sins. They receive it as such upon Christ's 
word : and accordingly partakax>f all the merits 
of it : whereby their sins are as fully remitted 
to them, as if they themselves had already 
undergone all the punishments which the law 
had threatened against them. For Christ hav- 
ing undergone them all in their stead ; and he 
having now communicated that body and blood 
in which he did it, unto them ; and they hav- 
ing by faith accordingly received it, the law is 






FREQUENT COMMUNION. 181 

now satisfied as to them, and can no more re- 
quire that they should suffer the punishments 
which were due unto their sins, than it can re- 
quire that Christ's body and blood which they 
have received, should be broken and shed again 
for them. 

And as Christ here puts us upon the exercise 
of our faith, by calling what we receive, his 
own body and blood ; so he doth likewise by 
offering and applying it particularly unto us. 
Saying, in the very institution, to the Apostles, 
and in them to every sound member of his 
Church, This is my body which is given for you, 
and This cup is the New Testament in my blood 
which is shed for you, Luke xxik 19, 20. And, 
therefore, in the distribution both of the bread 
and cup, according to the order of our Church, 
the minister saith to every particular commu- 
nicant, " The body of our Lord Jesus Christ 
which was given for thee, preserve thy body 
and soul to everlasting life. Take and eat this 
in remembrance that Christ died for thee." 



182 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

And so in the cup. " Drink this in remem- 
brance that Christ's blood was shed for thee." 
Which is much to be observed, as being of 
mighty use to the right exercising our faith in 
Christ, and so to our obtaining pardon and sal- 
vation by him. For Christ is said to have died 
for mankind in general, and all the promises in 
him are made not to this or that particular per- 
son, but to all that believe. And so every one 
is left to apply them as well as he can to him- 
self. But now in this holy sacrament this is 
done to our hands. For here Christ himself 
by his minister assures every particular person 
singly and by himself, that his Jx>dy was given 
for him, and His blood was shed for him or for 
her, which is an extraordinary help to our faith. 
For by this means every one upon the receipt 
of the holy sacrament hath a fair occasion, yea 
reason given him, to think thus with himself. 

" My soul doth magnify the Lord, my spirit 
rejoiceth in God my Saviour. Blessed be God, 
blessed be the eternal Son of God, he himself 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



183 



is become my Saviour. He loved me, and 
gave himself for me, even for me also, the un- 
worthiest of all his creatures. His body was 
broken, his blood was shed for me, and he hath 
now given it to me, that my sins may be par- 
doned, and that my soul may be saved by it. 
What then if my sins be many ? what if my 
sins be great ? I confess they are so, they are 
very many, and they are very great. But I 
am truly humbled for them, I heartily repent 
of them, I steadfastly resolve by God's assist- 
ance never to return any more unto them, but 
to spend the rest of my life wholly in his ser- 
vice and to his honor. What then need I fear ? 
Shall I fear the curse of the law ? my Saviour 
hath redeemed me from it, being made a curse 
for me. Shall I feel shame, or pain, or death 
itself] my Saviour hath suffered them all for 
me, so that none of them can now come near 
to hurt me. Shall I fear that sin will still have 
dominion over me ? my Saviour hath overcome 
it, and his grace shall be sufficient for me. 



184 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Shall I fear the powers of hell ? my Saviour 
hath triumphed over them all, and will enable 
me to do so too. Shall I fear the wrath of God ? 
my Saviour hath appeased it w r ith his own 
blood, and so hath restored me to his love and 
favor. For he died for me. He himself hath 
now told me so : and therefore I believe it, and 
am now persuaded, that c neither death, nor life, 
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
to separate me from the love of God, which is 
in Christ Jesus my Lord,' Rom. viii. 38, 39." 

Now seeing the receiving ofjthe sacrament 
of his last supper, conduceth so very much both 
to the exercising and strengthening our faith in 
our blessed Saviour, we who can never be 
saved without believing in him, cannot surely 
but acknowledge that it is as much our interest, 
as it is our duty, to receive it as often as we 
can. For my own part, I do not see how it is 
possible for us to live either so comfortably or 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 185 

so piously, as becometh those who expect sal- 
vation by Christ, without it. For, first, we 
cannot but be all conscious to ourselves of the 
many sms and failures that we are continually 
subject to through the whole course of our 
lives. There is not a day passeth over our 
head without doing something we ought not to 
do, or else not doing something which we 
ought. Our thoughts, our affections, our 
words, our actions, are all one way or other 
faulty. The very best works we do, have 
something that is not good in them. So that 
every day we contract new guilt, and have more 
sins to answer for, than we had the day before. 
But every sin that we commit, exposeth us to 
the wrath of the Almighty God, and makes us 
obnoxious to all the curses which he hath 
threatened in his Word. The thoughts where- 
of cannot but often cut us to the heart, and 
make us cry out with David, mine iniquities are 
gone over my head, as an heavy burden, they are 
too heavy for me to bear, Ps. xxxviii. 4. But 
__ __ ' 



186 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

what then shall we do ? whither shall we go 
for ease ? where can we find any rest and quiet 
for our troubled minds ? nowhere certainly so 
well as at our Lord's table. It is only He that 
can give rest unto our souls, and it is there He 
doth it most effectually. For He there ac- 
quaints us that He himself hath borne the pun- 
ishment of our sins ? and shows us how He did 
it, even by giving his body to be broken, and 
his blood to be shed for them. We there see 
that the Son of God died for the sins of the 
world, and for ours among the rest. Yea, He 
there tells us He did so, by saying, Take, eat, 
this is my body which is given for you, and this 
is my blood which is shed for you, for you and 
for your sins as well as for any other. As if 
he should say to every particular person by 
himself, behold and see what I have done, and 
what I have suffered for thee. It was for thee 
that I assumed a human body and blood. And 
this body I gave to be broken, this blood 1 gave 
to be shed for thee, and I now give it to thee for 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 187 

the expiation of thy sins. Therefore be of good 
cheer, my son, thy sins are pardoned. Only 
be not faithless but believing. 

He that thinks not this to be a great com- 
fort, must needs be very much hardened in his 
sins, so as not to feel the burden of them. For 
he that doth that, as all true penitents be sure 
do, cannot but be highly pleased with any as- 
surance that can be given him, that his sins are 
pardoned : much more with the greatest he 
can ever have on this side heaven, even that 
which is given in the holy sacrament, where 
his pardon is sealed with the blood of Christ, 
and delivered to him by his officers. And 
therefore such a one cannot but be always long- 
ing for an opportunity of receiving it, and em- 
brace it with all his heart wheresoever it comes : 
although it be every day in the week, as the 
primitive Christians had it, for this very rea- 
son, even because of their daily sins, as St. 
Cyprian informs us, de Orat. Dom. But in our 
age the case is altered. Once a week is now 



f 



188 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

thought too much. And I do not deny, but 
that they who can live a whole week together 
without sin, may not have so much need of re- 
ceiving it so often. But where shall we find 
such a manl not among us be sure. We all 
know that we sin in thought, word, or deed, 
every day in the week, if not every hour in 
the day too. And therefore, if we have any 
care of our souls, if any true sorrow for our 
sins, if any desire to obtain the pardon of them 
from the hands of God, we must catch at all 
the opportunities we can get of receiving that 
blessed sacrament where it is offered to us by 
Christ himself, and that too upon the most easy 
terms that can be imagined, nothing but re- 
pentance and faith in Him. 

Neither is this all. For we are sensible, not 
only of our manifold sins, but likewise of the 
cause or occasion of them, even the corruption 
of our nature : which is so very much disor- 
dered and out of tune, that we are not suffi- 
cient of ourselves to think anything as of our- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION, 189 

selves, much less to do anything that is truly 
good, but when we would do good, evil is pre- 
sent with us, and spoils all we do : so that we 
may every one say, with St. Paul, " I know 
that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no 
good thing. For to'will is present with me, 
but how to perform that which is good, I find 
not, Rom. vii. 18. But how to perform that 
which is evil, we all find. We all find that 
very easy and natural to us. Our thoughts are 
always running after it, our hearts inclined to 
it ; and do what we can by our own strength, 
some sin or other is apt to get dominion over 
us, and to reign in our mortal bodies. Yea, 
though " we delight," as the same Apostle 
speaks, " in the law of God after the inward 
man, yet we see another law in our members, 
warring against the law of our minds, and bring- 
ing us into captivity to the law of sin, which is 
in our members," v. 22, 23. And if we be 
really concerned as we ought to be for the 
glory of God, and for our own good, this must 



190 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

needs be the greatest trouble we can have in 
this world, and make us cry out, every one in 
the bitterness of his soul, as he did, " O wretch- 
ed man that I am, who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death !" v. 24. But then we 
may say also, as he doth in the next words, 
" I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," 
v. 25. He can deliver us, and will too, if we 
do but apply ourselves aright unto him for it. 
But for that purpose there is nothing like to 
the frequent receiving his blessed body and 
blood. Our very preparation for that holy sa- 
crament, by recollecting our sins, by consider- 
ing what we have deserved, and what our Sa- 
viour suffered for them, and by examining our 
repentance of them, whether it be sincere or 
no, doth of itself contribute very much to the 
taking off our affections from them, and to the 
putting us upon constant endeavors to forsake 
and avoid them. And so do the impressions 
also which the solemn administration of so di- 
vine an ordinance makes, and leaves upon our 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



191 



minds afterwards, by setting before us the death 
which the Son of God suffered for our sins, and 
assuring us of pardon if we repent of them. By 
which means they who frequently receive this 
holy sacrament, as suppose every Lord's day, 
are always kept upon their guard, between the 
preparations they make for it, and the impres- 
sions that are made upon them by it. Which, 
if duly observed, must needs meet together, 
and so give them no time to indulge themselves 
in any vice or wickedness. For being to re- 
ceive it upon the Lord's day, they cannot sure- 
ly but think of it, and prepare themselves for 
it, two or three days before ; and when they 
have been there, they cannot but remember 
what they saw and heard, and did there, at 
least three or four days after, and so to the 
time when they are to prepare themselves 
again for it. Whereby their minds are piously 
disposed and employed all the week, either 
about what they did the Sunday before, or 
what they are to do the Sunday following. 



192 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Which must needs conduce very much to the 
arming them against all temptations, to the 
preventing their falling into any gross sin, and ; 
to the keeping them continually in a holy and 
devout temper. 

But that which doth it most effectually of all, 
is the ghostly strength they receive at the 
sacrament itself. Where, as our Church right- 
ly observes and asserts in her catechism, u Our 
souls are strengthened and refreshed by the 
body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by 
the bread and wine." Meat and drink we 
know are by God's own appointment the com- 
mon supports of human life. Of all meats, 
bread is reckoned the most strengthening ; of 
all drinks, wine is the most refreshing. Now 
as our bodies are strengthened and refreshed by 
these which are there used as the outward part 
or sign of the Lord's Supper : so are our souls 
by the thing signified by them, even by the 
body and blood of Christ, which, as I have 
shown, are there verily and indeed taken and 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 193 

received by the faithful It is a great refresh- 
ment to our souls, as we have seen already, to 
have the pardon of our sins sealed and deliv- 
ered to us, as it is there, in the blood of Christ. 
And our souls are as much strengthened by the 
grace of God which always follows upon his 
pardon and reconciliation to us, and accompa- 
nieth the body and blood of Christ, whereso- 
ever it is. And therefore all who duly receive 
it, do therebj- receive it from him, and grace 
for grace , John i. 16, and so go from strength 
to strength, till they come to a perfect man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ 7 Eph. iv. 13. 

Let us hear what He himself saith, I am the 
bread of life, saith He, he that cometh to me shall 
never hunger, and he that believeth in me, shall 
never thirst, John vi. 35. I am the living bread 
which came down from heaven. If any man eat 
of this bread, he shall live for ever : and the 
bread that I will give, is my flesh, which I will 
give for the life of the world, v. 51. Whoso- 



194 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

ever eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath 
eternal life : for my flesh is meat indeed, and my 
blood is drink indeed : he that eateth my flesh 
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in 
him. As the living father hath sent me, and I 
live by the Father : so he that eateth Me, even 
he shall live by Me, v. 54, bb, 56, 57. But 
then he adds afterwards, it is the spirit that 
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The 
words that speak unto you, they are spirit, and 
they are life, v. 63. As if he had said, all that 
I have now spoken is to be understood in a 
spiritual sense, and of a spiritual life. I am the 
life of your souls : it is by my body and my 
blood that your souls are quickened, nourished, 
strengthened and preserved to eternal life. 

For this we have Christ's own word, and 
therefore may be confident, that as it is by Him 
only that we can be regenerate and born again 
to a new and spiritual life : so it is by Him 
only that this new and spiritual life can be 
maintained and excited in us, so;as to put forth 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 195 

and manifest itself in our actions. Without 
him we can do nothing, as he himself said, 
John xv. 5. But we can do all things through 
Christ which strengtheneth us, as his Apostle 
found by experience, Phil. iv. 13. But he 
strengthens none but those who believe in him, 
and therefore only because they do so. For 
it is by our believing in him that we are made 
members of his body, and so receive strength 
and nourishment from him our head. And ac- 
cording as our faith is stronger or weaker, so 
is the strength we receive from him more or 
less. And therefore the holy sacrament being 
the most sovereign means for the confirming 
our faith in him, our souls must needs be very 
much strengthened and refreshed by it. For 
we there receive the proper food of our souls, 
the bread of life, and the water of life, the 
blessed body and blood of Christ himself. And 
if his body and blood, then his Spirit too, 
which is always with them ; that Holy Spirit 
which purifies our hearts, which sanctifies our 



196 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

nature, which worketh in us both to will and 
to do, which strengthens and enables us to 
overcome the world, to withstand temptations, 
to mortify our sins, to do our whole duty both 
to God and man, and so offer up spiritual sacri- 
fices^ acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord, 1 Peter ii. 5. 

From hence therefore we may see the great 
advantage, if not the necessity, of frequent com- 
munion. We all know that our bodies cannot 
subsist long, but very few days, without food ; 
and why should we think that our souls should 
do so better than our bodies ? We all find by 
daily experience, that our souls^ are altogether 
as frail and infirm as our bodies are ; subject to 
as many distempers ; and every way as apt to 
decay, to grow faint and feeble, unable to walk 
at all in the narrow path that leads to life, 
without stumbling or at least reeling to one 
side or other, unless they be always kept in 
good plight, nourished and strengthened with 
such food as is proper for them. And certain- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 197 

ly we have as much reason at least, to take 
care of our immortal souls, to preserve their 
life, and health, and vigor, as we have to look 
after those lumps of clay which ere long must 
crumble into dust. But as for our ^bodies we 
feed them every day, several times a day, and 
that too with the best that we can get for them- 
And shall we think once a week too often to 
feed our souls ? And where shall we get such 
proper food for them as that which God himself 
hath provided, even the blessed body and blood 
of his dear Son ? Which is so nourishing, so 
strengthening, so refreshing to our souls, that 
the primitive Christians, by the frequent use of 
it, were able and ready every moment, not on- 
ly to do, but to suffer cheerfully whatsoever 
could be laid upon them, even death itself, for 
the sake of Christ. But the sacrament is the 
same still as it was then. And if we could use 
it as constantly as they did, we might live as 
they lived, and die too, if God should be pleased 
to honor us so far as to call us to it, for his 



198 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

sake who died for us, and whose death we 
there commemorate. 

Wherefore, as ever we desire to be strong in 
faith ; and zealous for the honor of God. As 
we desire to quench all the fiery darts of the 
wicked. As we desire to crucify the flesh with 
the affections and lusts. As we desire to live 
above this world, so as not to be ensnared or 
overpowered by anything that is in it. As we 
desire that the power of Christ should always 
rest upon us, and enable us to walk in all the 
commandments and ordinances of the Lord 
blameless. In short, as we desire by his assist- 
ance, both to live the life and to die the death 
of the righteous, w T e must often eat this bread 
and drink this cup, and bless God for all op- 
portunities that we can get to do it. 

These are some of the many arguments and 
reasons that might be produced for frequent 
communion. What effect they will have upon 
those that hear them, I know not ; but fear that 
it will be much the same that reason and argu- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 199 

ment usually have upon the greatest part of 
mankind : that is very little or none at all. 
But for mine own part, when I seriously con- 
sider these things, I cannot but wonder with 
myself, how it comes to pass, that this holy 
sacrament, instituted by Christ himself, is so 
much neglected and disused as it is, in a place 
where his religion is professed and acknow- 
ledged to be, as really it is, the only true re- 
ligion in the world. And after all my search, 
I can resolve it into nothing else but the de- 
generacy of the age we live in, and the great 
decay of that most holy religion among us. I 
am sure from the beginning it was not so. For 
some ages after the first establishment of the 
Christian religion, by Christ our Saviour, so 
long as they who embraced it, gave themselves 
up to the conduct of that Holy Spirit which he 
sent down among them, and were inspired by 
it with true zeal for Cod, and inflamed with 
love to their ever blessed Redeemer, so as to 
observe all things that he had commanded 



200 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

whatsoever it cost them, then they never met 
together upon any day in the week, much less 
upon the Lord's day, for the public worship of 
God, but they all received this holy sacrament, 
as the principal business they met about, and 
the most proper Christian sjervice they could 
perform. And it is very observable, that so 
long as this continued, men were endued with 
the extraordinary gifts as well as with the 
graces of God's Holy Spirit, so as to be able 
to do many wonderful things by it : yea and 
suffer too whatsoever could be inflicted on them 
for Christ's sake. But in process of time men 
began to leave off their first love to him, and 
to turn his religion into dispute and contro- 
versy ; and then as their piety and devotion 
grew cooler and cooler, the holy sacrament 
began to be neglected more and more, and the 
priests who administered it had fewer and few- 
er to receive it, until at length they had, some- 
times, none at all. But still they mistook 
themselves to be obliged in duty and conscience 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 201 

to consecrate and receive it themselves, al- 
though they had none to receive it with them. 
And this mistake, I suppose, gave the first oc- 
casion to that multitude of private masses which 
have been so much abused in the Church of 
Rome, where the priest commonly receives 
himself, although he hath never a one to com- 
municate with him : and so there can be no 
communion at all. And as that abuse, so the 
disuse of the holy sacrament sprang first from 
men's coldness and indifference in religion, 
which hath prevailed so far in our days, that 
there are many thousands of persons who are 
baptized, and live many years in the profession 
of the Christian religion, and yet never receiv- 
ed the sacrament of Christ's body and blood in 
all their lives. And but very few that receive 
it above once or twice a year, which is a great 
reproach and shame to the age w r e live in ; but 
none at all to the Church : for she is always 
ready to administer it, if people could be per- 
suaded to come to it. But that they cannot, 
_ - 



202 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

or rather will not be. They have still one 
pretence or other to excuse themselves, but 
none that will excuse them before God and 
their own consciences another day. 

What their pretences are, I shall not under- 
take to determine. They are so many, that 
they cannot easily be numbered. And many 
of them so vain and trifling, that they are not 
worth rehearsing. But the bottom of them all 
is this, men renounced the world, the devil, 
and the flesh, in their baptism, but they are 
loth to do it in their lives : they then promised 
to serve God, but now they find something else 
to do. They have all one sin or other that 
reigns over them, and captivates their hearts 
and affections, so that they cannot endure the 
thoughts of parting with it. And they think, 
as they ought to do, that if they come to the 
holy sacrament, they must first examine them- 
selves, repent of all their sins, turn to God, re- 
new their baptismal vow, and resolve to lead a 
new life. But this they are resolved not to do. 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 203 

And if they should come to the sacrament, it 
would hut disturb their quiet, make them un- 
easy in their minds, and hinder them from en- 
joying the pleasure they were wont to take in 
their sins. Arid for their part, they had rather 
displease God than themselves ; and neglect 
their duty rather than leave their sins. And 
so add sin to sin, and Treasure up to themselves 
wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of 
the righteous judgment of God. This is plainly 
the case of most of those who live in the neg- 
lect of this holy commandment. And what can 
be said to such men ? So long as such, they 
are not fit to come to the communion. And, 
therefore, all that can be said to them is only 
to beg of them to consider their condition be- 
fore it be too late, and to repent as soon as they 
can ; lest they die, as they have lived, in sin, 
and so be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
glory of his power. 

But there are others who do receive the 



204 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

sacrament of Christ's body and blood sometimes, 
as perhaps two or three times in a year : and 
my charity prompts me to believe that they 
would do it oftener, if they thought it to be 
their duty. But there are some things which 
at first sight may seem, at least to them, to 
plead their excuse, and, therefore, deserve to 
be duly considered by us. As, first, they say, 
our Church requires them only to receive three 
times a year : and they do not question but she 
would oblige them to receive it oftener, if it 
was necessary. This is a mistake that a great 
many have fallen into, and by that means have 
been kept from the sacrament, more than other- 
wise they would have been. I call it a mis- 
take : for it is so, and a very great one. For 
as in all things else, so particularly in this, our 
Church keeps close to the pattern of the apos- 
tolic and primitive Church ; when, as I have 
before observed, the Lord's Supper was admin- 
istered, and received commonly every day in 
the week, but most constantly upon the Lord's 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 205 

day. And our Church suppose th it to be so 
still, and therefore hath accordingly* made pro- 
vision for it. Which that I may fully demon- 
strate to you, it will be necessary to inquire 
into the sense and practice of our Church in 
this point all along from the beginning of the 
Reformation, or to speak more properly, from 
the time when she was restored to that apos- 
tolical form which she is now of, as she was at 
first ; which we date from the reign of king 
Edward VI. 

For in the first year of that pious prince, the 
liturgy, or book of common prayer, was first 
compiled, and in the second it was settled by 
act of parliament. In which book it is ordered 
that the exhortation to those who are minded 
to receive the sacrament shall be read : which 
is there set down, much the same that we read 
now. But afterwards, it is said, " In cathedral 
Churches or other places, where there is daily 
communion, it shall be sufficient to read this 
exhortation above written once in a month. 



206 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

And in parish Churches upon the week days, it 
may be left unsaid," Fol. 123. Where we may 
observe, first, that in those days, there was 
daily communion in cathedral Churches, and 
other places, as there used to be in the primitive 
Church. And accordingly I find in the records 
of St. PauPs, that when the plate, jewels, &c, 
belonging to the said cathedral were delivered 
to the king's commissioners, they, upon the 
dean and chapter's request, permitted to remain, 
among other things, " Two pair of basins for to 
bring the communion bread and to receive the 
offerings for the poor ; whereof, one pair silver, 
for every day, the other for festivals, &c.,gilt." 
Dugdal. Hist, of St. PauPs, p. 274 ; from 
whence it is plain, that the communion was 
then celebrated in that Church every day. And 
so it was in parish Churches. For, otherwise, 
it needed hot to be ordered as it is in the rubric 
above mentioned, that in parish Churches upon 
the week days, the said exhortation may be 
left unsaid. And to the same purpose it is 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. - 207 

afterwards said, " When the holy communion 
is celebrated on work-day or in private houses, 
then may be omitted the gloria in excelsis, the 
creed, the homily, and the exhortation," Fol. 
132. 

Next after that we quoted first, this rubric 
immediately follows, " And if upon the Sunday 
or holy-day, the people be negligent to come to 
the communion, then shall the priest earnestly 
exhort his parishioners to dispose themselves to 
the receiving of the holy communion more dili- 
gently," saying, &c. Which shows that upon 
all Sundays and holy-days people then general- 
ly received ! the Church expected and required 
it of them. And if any minister found that his 
parishioners did not always come, at least upon 
those days, he was to exhort and admonish 
them to dispose themselves more diligently for 
it ; and that by the command of the Church it- 
self ; whereby she hath sufficiently declared her 
will and desire that all her members should re- 
ceive the communion as they did in the primi- 



208 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

tive times, every day in the week, if possible : 
and if that could not be, yet at least every 
Sunday and holy-day in the year. 

In the rubric after the communion service, 
there are several things to the same purpose. 
For it is there ordered, that upon Wednesdays 
and Fridays ) although there be none to communi- 
cate, the priest shall say all things at the altar 
appointed to be said at the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper, until after the offertory. And 
then it follows. " And the same order shall be 
used whensoever the people be customably as- 
sembled to pray in the church, and none 
disposed to communicate with the priest," Fol. 
130. Whereby we are giverT to understand, 
that upon what day soever people came to 
church, the priest was to be ready to celebrate 
the holy sacrament if any were disposed to 
communicate with him. And if there were 
none, he was to show his readiness by reading 
a considerable part of the communion service. 

There is another rubric in the same place 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 209 

that makes it still plainer. Which I shall tran- 
scribe, because the book is not commonly to be 
had, neither can it be expressed better than in 
its words, which are these. " Also, that the 
receiving of the sacrament of the blessed body 
and blood of Christ, may be most agreeable 
to the institution thereof, and to the usage of 
the primitive Church, in all cathedral and 
collegiate churches, there shall always some 
communicate with the priest that ministreth. 
And that the same may be also observed 
everywhere abroad in the country, some one 
at the least of that house in every parish, to 
whom by course, after the ordinance herein 
made, it appertaineth to offer for the charges 
of the communion, or some other whom they 
shall provide to offer for them, shall receive 
the holy communion with the priest : the 
which may be the better done, for that they 
know before when their course cometh, and 
may therefore dispose themselves to the 
worthy receiving of the sacrament. And 
_ - — 



210 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

with him or them, who doth so offer the 
charges of the communion, all other who be 
then godly disposed thereunto, shall likewise 
receive the communion. And by this means 
the Minister having always some to commu- 
nicate with him, may accordingly solemnize 
so high and holy mysteries, with all the suf- 
frages and due order appointed for the same. 
And the Priest on the week-day shall forbear 
to celebrate the communion, except he have 
some that will communicate with him." 

Here we see what care the Church took that 
the sacrament might be daily administered not 
only in cathedral but likewise in parish- 
churches. For which purpose, whereas every 
parishioner had before been used to find the 
holy loaf, as it was called, in his course, in the 
rubric before this, it is ordained that every pas- 
tor or curate shall find sufficient bread and wine 
for the communion, and that the parishioners, 
every one in his course, shall offer the charges 
of it at the offertory to the pastor or curate ; 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 211 

and in this it is ordained that every such par- 
ishioner shall then in his course communicate, 
or else get some other person to do it, that so 
the communion may be duly celebrated : and 
all there present that were godly disposed might 
partake of it. Which one would have thought 
as good a provision as could have been made 
in the case. But notwithstanding, through the 
obstinacy or carelessness of some, in not mak- 
ing their said offering as they were command- 
ed, it sometimes failed. As appears from the 
letter written about a year after by the privy 
council, and subscribed by the Archbishop of 
Canterbury , and others, to the Bishops, to as- 
sure them that the King intended to go on with 
the reformation, wherein among other things 
they say ; "And farther, whereas it is come to 
our knowledge that divers froward and obsti- 
nate persons do refuse to pay towards the find- 
ing of bread and wine for the holy communion, 
according to the order prescribed in the said 
book, by reason whereof the holy communion 



212 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

is many times omitted upon the Sunday. 
These are to will and command you to convent 
such obstinate persons before you, and them to 
admonish and command to keep the order pre- 
scribed in the said book. And if any such shall 
refuse so to do, to punish them by suspension, 
excommunication, or other censures of the 
Church." Hist, of the Reform., part 2, Coll P. 
192. From whence we may also learn how 
much they were troubled to hear that the holy 
sacrament was anywhere omitted even upon 
the Sunday ) upon any Sunday ; how great a 
fault and scandal they judged it to be, and what 
care they took to prevent it for the future. 

This was the state of this affair at the begin- 
ning of the reformation, and it continues in ef- 
fect the same to this day. About three or four 
years after the foresaid book of common prayer 
first came out, it was revised and set forth again 
with some alterations in the form, but none 
that were material in the substance of it. Only 
the former way of the parishioners finding bread 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 213 

and wine for the communion every one in his 
course, being now found not so effectual as was 
expected, that was now laid aside, and it was 
ordered to be provided at the charges of the 
parish in general, in these words, " The bread 
and wine for the communion shall be provided 
by the curate and church-wardens at the charges 
of the parish : and the parish shall be discharg- 
ed of such sums of money or other duties, 
which hitherto they have paid for the same, by 
order of their houses, every Sunday." Where 
we may take notice, that as hitherto it had been 
provided every Sunday by the houses of every 
parish, as they lay in order, it was now to be 
provided by the minister and church-warden at 
the charges of the whole parish, but still every 
Sunday ^ as it was before ; which being the 
most certain way that could be found out for 
it, it is still continued. The first part of this 
rubric, whereby it is enjoined, being still in 
force. But the latter part, from these words, 
" and the parish shall be discharged," &c, is 



214 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

now left out, as it was necessary it should be, 
after the former course had been disused for 
above a hundred years. 

Now this book of common prayer, which was 
thus settled by act of parliament in the fifth and 
sixth year of Edward the Sixth, was that which 
was afterwards confirmed. And this was that 
which was afterwards confirmed in the begin- 
ning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, with one alte- 
ration or addition of certain lessons to be used 
on every Sunday in the year, and the form of 
the litany altered and corrected, and two sen- 
tences only added in the delivery of the sacra- 
ment to the communicants. These were all 
the alterations that were then made, or indeed 
that have been ever made since that time to 
this, except it be in words or phrases, in the 
addition of some prayers, and in some such in- 
considerable things, as do not at all concern our 
present purpose. For the care of our Church, 
to have the holy communion constantly cele- 
brated, hath been the same all along, from the 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 215 

time that the book of common prayer before 
spoken of was first settled ; as may be easily 
proved from that which was established by the 
last act of uniformity. Which therefore I shall 
now briefly consider, so far as it relates to the 
business in hand : that we may understand the 
sense of our Church at present concerning it. 

For this purpose therefore we must first ob- 
serve that the communion service is appointed 
for the communion itself, and therefore called 
the order for the administration of the LoroVs 
Supper, or holy communion. Now our Church 
supposing, or at least hoping, that some of her 
members will receive this holy communion 
every day, hath taken care that this service 
may be used every day in the week, as appears 
from the rubric immediately before the proper 
lessons, which is this, Note also that the collect, 
epistle and gospel appointed for the Sunday, 
shall serve all the week after where it is not in 
this book otherwise ordered. But the collect, 
epistle and gospel are part of the communion 



216 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

service, for which there is no occasion on the 
week days, neither can it be used except the 
communion be administered, which therefore is 
here supposed to be done every day in the 
week. And so it is also in the celebration of 
the communion itself, where there are proper 
prefaces appointed to be used upon certain 
days. Upon Christmas day and seven days 
after. Upon Easter day and seven days after. 
Upon Ascension day, and seven days after. 
Upon Whit- Sunday , and six days after (the 
next day being Trinity- Sunday ^ which hath 
one peculiar to itself). Now to what purpose 
are these prefaces appointed to be used seven 
days together or six, none of which can be a 
Sunday j if the sacrament ought not to be ad- 
ministered upon all those days, and so upon 
week-days as well as Sundays ? They are all, 
as I intimated before, to be used in the actual 
administration of it, and therefore plainly sup- 
pose it to be actually administered upon each 
of those days, which being for the most part 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 217 

neither Sundays nor Holy-days, they most evi- 
dently demonstrate, that according to the mind 
and order of our Church, as well as the primi- 
tive, the Lord's Supper ought to be administer- 
ed every day, that all who live as they ought, in 
her communion, may be daily partakers of it. 
In the rules and orders (which we call the 
rubric) after the communion service, there are 
several things that deserve to be considered in 
this case. It is there ordered, that there shall 
be no celebration of the communion, except 
there be a convenient number, that is, four, or 
three at the least to communicate with the priest. 
According to which rule, although the priest 
have all things ready, and desires to consecrate 
and receive the holy sacrament himself, yet he 
must not do it, unless he have such a number 
to communicate with him, that it may be pro- 
perly a communion. But, as it is there order- 
ed, upon the Sundays and ether Holy-days (if 
there be no communion) shall be said all that is 
appointed at the communion until the end of the 



218 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

general prayer (the good estate of the catholic 
Church of Christ ), where we may observe, 
that the Church, as I have shown, appoints the 
sacrament to be administered every day. But 
if it so fall out that there be not in any place 
a convenient number to communicate with the 
priest, and by consequence according to the or- 
der before mentioned, no communion, yet never- 
theless upon Sundays and other Holy-days so 
much of the communion service shall be said 
as is there limited. Why only upon Sundays 
and Holy-days, but to distinguish them from 
other days, on which if there be a sufficient 
number of communicants the whole communion 
service is to be used ; but no part of it except 
there be so. But upon Sundays and Holy-days, 
although there be not such a number, and there- 
fore no communion, yet, however, the priest 
shall go up to the altar, and there read all that 
is appointed to be said at the communion, until 
the end of the prayer for Christ's catholic 
Church; whereby the people may see, that 






FREQUENT COMMUNION. 219 

neither he nor the Church is to be blamed, if 
the holy sacrament be not then administered. 
Forasmuch as he is there ready by the order 
of the Church to do it, and goes as far as he 
can in the service appointed for it, without the 
actual administration of it : and, therefore, that 
the fault is wholly in themselves that it is not 
actually administered, because they will not 
make up a convenient number among them to 
communicate with him. Which is a most ex- 
cellent order ; for the people hereby have not 
only God's holy commandments solemnly pro- 
claimed, the epistle and gospel for the day, the 
Nicene creed, and prayers proper for that oc- 
casion read to them, but they are likewise put 
in mind of their duty to their Saviour in receiv- 
ing his most blessed body and blood, and up- 
braided with their neglect of it. For which 
purposes also I think it very expedient, that the 
order of the Church for the reading that part of 
the service at the communion table, even when 
there is no communion, be duly observed. 



220 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

The next rubric in the same place, that con- 
cerns our present business is this, And in all 
cathedral and collegiate churches, and colleges 
where there are many priests and deacons, they 
shall all receive the communion with the priest 
every Sunday at the least, except they have a 
reasonable cause to the contrary. Where we 
see that the Church doth not command, but 
supposes that the sacrament is constantly ad- 
ministered in all such places, taking it for grant- 
ed, that it is never omitted there, where there 
are so many persons devoted to the service of 
God ; but that there is always a sufficient num- 
ber to communicate. But she absolutely com- 
mands, that all priests and deacons that belong 
to such foundations, shall receive the commu- 
nion with the priest, every Sunday at the least, 
except any of them have a reasonable cause to 
the contrary, which the ordinary of the place, 
I suppose, is to be the judge of. They are 
bound, therefore, all and every one of them, to 
receive it every Sunday; which, notwith- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 221 

standing they cannot do, unless it be adminis- 
tered every Sunday among them. Wherefore 
if there be any such places where it is not so 
administered, or any such persons who do not, 
without just cause to the contrary, receive it 
every Sunday in the year, I do not see how 
they can answer it to God, to the Church, or to 
their own consciences : neither are they bound 
to receive it only every Sunday, but every 
Sunday at the least. Which plainly supposeth 
that it is administered upon other days as well 
as Sundays ; for otherwise they could not re- 
ceive it oftener if they would. And it is to be 
hoped, that all such persons receive it as often 
as it is administered among them : but the 
Church expressly requires them to receive it 
at least every Sunday, so as never to omit it 
at least upon that day, except they have a rea- 
sonable or such a cause to the contrary as will 
justify their omission of it before the Church 
and Christ himself at the last day. 

These things being thus briefly explained, 



222 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

we shall easily see into the true meaning of 
the words that gave us the occasion to dis- 
course of them, which are these, in the place 
last quoted, " And note, that every parishioner 
shall communicate at the least three times in 
the year, of which Easter to be one." From 
whence some have been tempted to think, that 
the Church doth not look upon it as necessary, 
that they should communicate above thrice a 
year. I say, tempted to think so ; for no man 
surely in his right wits can of himself draw 
such an inference from these words, which is 
so directly contrary to the sense of the Church, 
and hath no foundation at all in the words 
themselves. For the Church, as I have shown, 
hath taken all the care she can, that the holy 
sacrament should be everywhere administered, 
if it was possible, every day, at least every 
Sunday and Holy-day in the year. Which she 
would never have done, if she had thought it 
sufficient for any one to receive only thrice a 
year ; for then all her care about the frequent 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



223 



administration of it would be in vain, and to no 
purpose. And besides, she hath drawn up an 
excellent exhortation to be read by the minis- 
ter of every parish, in case he sees the people 
negligent to come to the holy communion, be- 
ginning thus, Dearly beloved, on — I intend 

by God's grace to celebrate the Lord's Supper. 
Where we may observe, that it is not said, on 

such a Sunday, but on with a blank, 

to show that the minister may appoint the com- 
munion on any day of the week, when he can 
have a sufficient number to communicate with 
him ; and so it is in the other exhortation, only 
there is a day put in, which may be understood 
of Tuesday or Wednesday, or any other day, 
as well as Sunday, for the same reason. In 
that first mentioned, the minister, in the words 
and by the order of the Church, invites all 
there present, and beseecheth them, for the 
Lord Jesus Christ's sake, tp come to the Lord's 
Supper. And among other things he saith to 
them all, " I bid you in the name of God, I call 



224 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

you in Christ's behalf, I exhort you as you love 
your own salvation, that ye will be partakers 
of this holy communion." There are several 
such pathetical expressions in that exhorta- 
tion, wherewith the Church most earnestly 
exhorts, adviseth, admonisheth all persons to 
come to this holy sacrament. And this ex- 
hortation every minister is to read publicly be- 
fore all his congregation, whensoever he sees 
them negligent to come to it ; as all are, who 
come but two or three times a year, where 
they may have it oftener if they will. They 
plainly live in the neglect of it, and therefore 
ought to have this exhortation read to them, 
according to the order of the Church. Where- 
by she hath sufficiently demonstrated, that she 
doth not think it enough for people generally 
to receive it only three times in a year ; but 
that it is her opinion, that they ought, and her 
hearty desire they would receive it as often as 
it is, or according to her order, ought to be 
administered among them. 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 225 

But then she wisely considers withal, that 
being a national Church, made up of all sorts of 
persons, it is necessary that her general rules 
and orders should be accommodated as much 
as possible, to the several conditions and cir- 
cumstances that many of them may be some- 
times in. And, therefore, although she exhorts 
all her members to frequent and constant com- 
munion, yet she doth not think fit to command 
and oblige them all under the pain of excom- 
munication to receive oftener than three times 
a year, lest some might be thereby tempted to 
come sometimes without that preparation and 
disposition of mind that is requisite to the wor- 
thy partaking of so great a mystery. I say, 
under pain of excommunication : for that is the 
meaning and the effect of this law, that they 
who do not communicate at least three times 
in a year, may and ought to be cast out of the 
communion of Christ's Church, as no longer 
fit to be called Christians, seeing they live in 

such a gross neglect of Christ's own command, 
— 



226 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

and of that duty, whereby Christians are in an 
especial manner distinguished from other men. 
Other men, as Jews, Turks, and Heathens, may 
fast and pray, and hear sermons in their way ; 
but to receive the sacrament of Christ's Supper, 
is proper and peculiar only to Christians, or 
such as profess that religion which Jesus Christ 
hath settled in the world. And, therefore, they 
who receive that sacrament, do, thereby, mani- 
fest themselves to be Christians. They who 
do it not, make it at least doubtful w r hether 
they be Christians or no. For although they 
were baptized, and so made Christians once, 
who knows whether they have not renounced 
their baptism, and apostatized from the Chris- 
tian religion ? They themselves, perhaps, may 
profess they have not ; but the Church can 
never know it, but hath just cause to suspect 
the contrary, so long as they refuse to renew 
the vow they made in the sacrament of bap- 
tism, by receiving that of the Lord's Supper. 
And the least that can be required of them for 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 227 

that purpose, is to do it three times a year ; 
which, therefore, the Church absolutely re- 
quires. Not that it is not necessary for them 
to receive it oftener in order to their salvation, 
but because it ig necessary they should do it at 
least so often, that the Church may be satisfied 
that they continue in her communion, and 
constant to that religion wherein alone salvation 
can be had. 

And hence it is, that in the rule itself, it is 
not said, that every person, but every parishioner 
shall communicate at the least three times in 
the year. Which, therefore, is required of all, 
not as they are members only of the catholic, 
but as they are members of a parochial Church, 
arid they are bound by this law to do it at least 
so often in their own parish Church, where 
they are parishioners : otherwise they do not 
do it as parishioners, as the law requires. So 
that although a man communicates a hundred 
times in any other place, as in the cathedra], 
which is free to all of the diocese, or in a chapel 



228 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

of ease, or in any other church, when he can- 
not have it at his own, this does not satisfy the 
law. But he must communicate at least three 
times in the year, as a parishioner, in his own 
parish Church, where there are officers, called 
churchwardens, appointed on purpose to take 
notice of it, and to inform the Church against 
him, if he neglect to do it so often as she re- 
quires ; that she may use the most effectual 
means to bring him to repentance for his sin, 
and to make him more careful for the future to 
perform so great and necessary a duty as this 
is ; or if he continue obstinate, cut him off from 
the body of Christ, as no longer worthy to be 
called a member of it. And, therefore, all that 
can be reasonably inferred from this law, is, 
that the Church doth not think them fit to com- 
municate at all, who will not communicate at 
least three times in the year. But as for her 
opinion, of the necessity of communicating 
oftener in order to men's obtaining eternal sal- 
vation by the blood of Christ, that she hath suf- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 229 

ficiently declared, by the great care she hath 
taken to have this holy sacrament administered 
constantly as often as it was in the Apostles' 
and primitive times of Christianity ; that is as 
often as any Christian can desire to have it. 
For, according to the order and discipline of 
our Church, if a sufficient number of parish- 
ioners, against whom there is no just exception, 
desire to receive it every Sunday ^ or every day 
in the year, the Minister of their parish not 
only may, but, as I humbly conceive, is bound 
to consecrate and administer it to them. The 
want of such a number, being, as far as I can 
perceive, the only reason that can ever justify 
the omission of it. 

I have endeavored to set this matter in as 
clear a light as I could, because it will discover 
to us several things very observable concerning 
the Church we live in. For hereby we see ho^ 
exactly she follows the pattern of the primitive 
and apostolic Church in this particular, as well 
as others ; what great care she hath taken, that 



230 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

the bread and water of life may be duly distri- 
buted to all her members whensoever they hun- 
ger and thirst after it. With how great prudence 
she hath so ordered it, that all may have it as 
often as they will, and yet none compelled to 
receive it tifterier than it is absolutely necessary, 
in order to their manifesting themselves to con- 
tinue iri the faith of Christ How desirous she 
is that all would receive it constantly, and yet 
how careful that none may receive it unwor- 
thily. How uniform she hath been in her orders 
about it all alongc And by consequence what 
cause we all have to bless God, that we live in 
the communion of such a Church, and how 
much it behooves us to receive the holy com- 
munion of her, not only as often as she strictly 
commands all to receive it under the pain of ex- 
communication, but as often as she adviseth and 
ijdiorteth us to do it in order to our eternal sal- 
vation, and as she is ready and desirous to com- 
municate it to us. And then we should be sure 
to receive it as often as we are bound either 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 231 

in duty to God or by our own interest to 
do it. 

Another reason why many do not oftener eat 
this bread and drink this cup, is because as they 
pretend, they dare not, for fear of sinning against 
God, and incurring eternal damnation by it. 
For the Apostle in this very place saith, ivho- 
soever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of 
the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body 
and blood of the Lord, v. 27. And he that eateth 
and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh dam- 
nation to himself, not discerning the LoroVs body, 
v. 29 . But they cannot but acknowledge them- 
selves to be unworthy of it, and if they should 
do it often, they might sometimes do it unwor- 
thily, and so might hazard their salvation by it. 
This is a mistake that many have lain under ; 
and therefore it will be worth our while to lay 
it as open as we can, that people may see into 
the vanity and falsehood of it. 

First, therefore, if there be any force in this 
argument against frequent communion, it holds 



232 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

as well against ever communicating at all. For 
if every unworthy person that presumes to eat 
this bread, and drink this cup, and every one 
that doth it any way unworthily, is thereby ren- 
dered obnoxious to eternal damnation, then all 
would be so that ever eat and drink it at all. 
Forasmuch as no man is worthy of any, much 
less of so great a mercy as that is, neither can 
any man do any, much less so great a work as 
that is, every way so exactly as he ought. And 
therefore no man, according to this opinion, can 
ever obey this command of his Saviour, with- 
out running the hazard of losing his salvation 
by it. Which is such a groundless and vain 
conceit that I wonder how it first came into 
man's head. For it is the same as to imagine 
that he who came into the world on purpose to 
save us, should require us to do that in order to 
our salvation, which we can never do without 
being damned. Which is so absurd, that what- 
soever is, this, be sure, cannot be the Apostle's 
meaning in those words. 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 233 

Neither indeed can the words themselves 
bear any such sense, without plain force and 
violence put upon them. For the Apostle doth 
not here speak of the unworthiness of the per- 
son, but of the action. He doth not say, if any 
unworthy person shall eat this bread and drink 
this cup : for all are unworthy, and they usually 
the most who think themselves the least ; and 
they the least, who think themselves the most 
unworthy. But he saith, " He that eateth and 
drinketh unworthily, 55 or after an unworthy 
manner, unbecoming so great and sacred a duty 
as that is. And what this unworthy manner 
of receiving the holy sacrament was, which he 
here speaks of, appears plainly from the con- 
text. He is here reproving the Corinthians 
for some disorders that were among them, and 
particularly in the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper. For first of all, saith he, " When ye 
come together in the Church, I hear that there 
be divisions among you, and I partly believe 
it," v. 18. It seems there were divisions among 

20 — "~ 



234 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

them, not only in other places but in the Church 
itself; nor at other times only, but likewise 
when they were receiving the holy communion 
itself: and then he adds, " When ye come to- 
gether therefore into one place, this is not to 
eat the Lord's Supper : for in eating every one 
taketh before other his own supper, and one is 
hungry, and another is drunken. What, have 
ye not houses to eat and drink in ? Or despise 
ye the Church of God, and shame them that 
have not, or are poor ?" v. 20, 21, 22. Where 
we may observe, that they came together, as I 
have observed before, to eat the Lord's Supper, 
that was the end, as they pretended, of their 
meeting, but as they ordered the business, they 
did not do it. They did not eat the Lord's 
Supper but their own. Some ate but little, so 
as to be still hungry ; others ate and drank so 
much as to be drunken, and that in the Church 
itself. For that they ate their own supper 
there, appears from the Apostle's calling it their 
own, and not the Lord's Supper; and, also, from 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 235 

his saying in the next verse, " What have ye 
not houses to eat and drink in, or despise ye 
the Church of God," making as if that was but 
like one of your own houses where ye eat and 
drink every day ? And lastly, from the direc- 
tion he afterwards gives them how to amend 
this fault, saying, " Wherefore, my brethren, 
when ye come together to eat, tarry one for 
another : and if any man hunger, let him eat at 
home, that ye come not together unto con- 
demnation, or judgment, v. 33, 34. This there- 
fore is the thing which the Apostle here con- 
demns. They had got, it seems, a wicked cus- 
tom among them to bring their own ordinary 
food to the church, and to eat and drink it 
there. And because they did it in the church 
they looked upon it as the Lord's Supper ; or 
at least ate that there no otherwise than they 
used to eat their own at home ; without show- 
ing any respeet to Christ's mystical body and 
blood, or making any difference between his 
supper and their own, but only that they ate 



236 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

the one in the church and the other at their 
own houses. Which was a great mistake, and 
fault ; for which the Apostle meekly reproves 
them, saying, " What shall I say to you ? Shall 
I praise you in this ? I praise you not," v. 22. 
And then he gives them the reason why he 
could not praise, but blame them for it, even 
because the Lord's Supper was instituted by 
the Lord Christ himself, to keep up the remem- 
brance of himself in the Church, to their igno- 
rance of which he in great charity imputes 
their fault. Not doubting but that if they had 
known the nature and end of that holy sacra- 
ment, they would have set a greater value 
upon it ; and therefore perceiving that they 
did not rightly understand what he had before 
delivered to them about it, he fully declares it 
again to them, saying, " for I have received of 
the Lord," &c, v. 23, 24, 25. After which, 
having acquainted them in my text^ how 
this is done in remembrance of Christ, even by 
showing forth his death, he draws this infer- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 237 

ence from it ; wherefore " whosoever shall 
eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord 
unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord,'' v. 27. Which therefore 
must needs be understood of that unworthy 
manner of doing it, which he before spoke of, 
and which gave him the occasion of saying it, 
even their eating this bread, and drinking this 
cup of the Lord after the same manner as they 
ate and drank at home, without expressing any 
reverence to the holy sacrament, or to Christ's 
body and blood there represented. And there- 
fore he saith, that " whosoever doth so, is 
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord," 
that k y he is guilty of profaning of Christ's 
mystical body and blood, crucifying, as it were, 
to himself " the son of God afresh, and putting 
him to an open shame," Heb. vi. 6, by eating 
his body and drinking his blood as common 
things, and so exposing him to contempt and 
scorn. 

That this is the true meaning of the phrase, 



238 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

appears also from the next verse but one, where 
it occurs again. For he that eateth and drink- 
eth unworthily , eateth and drinketh damnation to 
himself, not discerning the LoroVs body, v. 29, 
not discerning, that is, not considering whose 
body it is, nor making any difference between 
that and their ordinary food. As the original 
word duxuQivwv plainly imports. This there- 
fore is that unworthy receiving which the 
Apostle here particularly condemneth ; when 
men come to the Lord's table and receive the 
outward signs of bread and wine, without dis- 
cerning by faith the Lord's body signified by 
them, and therefore without showing any more 
regard and reverence to what they eat and 
drink there, than they do to any other meat and 
drink. ' Which horrid sin, although the Corin- 
thians fell into it before they fully understood 
the nature and end of Christ's institution ; yet 
I hope few are guilty of it among us, now that 
the institution of this holy sacrament is so 
clearly delivered and explained by the Apostle 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 239 

in this place. They seem to come nearest to 
it, who sit at the Lord's table as they do at 
their own, and receive Christ's body and blood 
with no more reverence and godly fear, than 
they eat and drink at home. 

But that which hath frightened people most 
from this sacrament, is the Apostle's saying, 
according to our translation, He that eateth and 
drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damna- 
tion to himself. And I confess at first sight it 
looks very frightfully. For it seems to imply, 
that whosoever receiveth the holy sacrament 
after an unholy manner, or any otherwise than 
he ought, is, ipso facto, damned, or adjudged 
to eternal punishments for it. Which, if true, 
would discourage all considering persons from 
ever receiving at all, unless they have greater 
assurance of their own worthiness and abilities, 
than can reasonably be expected in this life, or 
justly pretended to by any that know them- 
selves. But our comfort is, this cannot possibly 
be the meaning of the words. For, besides, 



240 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

that no man can receive it so worthily as he 
ought, and every unworthy receiving, as I have 
shown, is not that which the Apostle here 
speaks of : besides that I say, the word KgTfia 
which is translated damnation in the text, in the 
margent of our Bibles is rendered judgment. 
Which shows that our translators themselves 
were not satisfied that the word here signified 
damnation, but that it might be taken in the 
other sense. But howsoever they put damna- 
tion into the text, to make people, I suppose, 
the more careful how they received. Not fore- 
seeing what ill uses might be made of it : and 
accordingly have been so in our age. Where- 
in through the ignorance or indiscretion of some 
persons, this one word hath kept more people 
from the holy communion than all the com- 
mandments for it, can bring to it. Not in itself 
or from its own proper meaning ; but by reason 
of the harsh sound it makes in our ears, who 
commonly use it for damnation to eternal pun- 
ishments, whereas it may be applied as well to 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 241 

those which are only temporal. And so it must 
be here. The original word KgTfia signifies 
judgment in general ; whereby a man is ad- 
judged to any sort of punishment. But what 
that is, in particular, must be determined from 
the circumstances of the place where it is used. 
As in this place the Apostle himself plainly 
shows what kind of judgment or damnation he 
means by it. For, having said, He that eateth 
and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh 
damnation, or judgment, to himself; he imme- 
diately adds, For this cause many are weak and 
sickly among you, and many sleep, v. 30. From 
w T hence it is easy to suppose, that some epide- 
mical distemper at that time raged at Corinth, 
particularly among the Christians of which 
many died, and others, though they escaped 
death, yet continued weak and sickly for some 
time after. This the Apostle ascribes to the 
judgment of God upon them, for their unworthy 
and profane eating and drinking Christ's mys- 
tical body and blood, as if it had been common 



242 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

food. For this cause, saith he, many are weak 
and sickly among you, fyc. And therefore this 
must needs be the judgment which he here 
means. But this is so far from eternal damna- 
tion, that it is usually inflicted on purpose to 
prevent that. And that it was so at this time, 
appears from what follows. For, saith he, if we 
would judge ourselves, we should not he judged. 
But when we are judged we are chastened of the 
Lord, that we should not be condemned with the 
world, v. 31, 32. This was the end of that, a 
it is of all the judgments which God lays upon 
his people, even to bring them thereby to such 
a sight and sense of their sins, and to such a 
hearty and sincere repentance, that they may 
not be condemned for them. And therefore 
when the Apostle saith, He that eateth and 
drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damna- 
tion to himself: and again, afterwards, If any 
man hunger, let him eat at home, that ye come 
not together unto condemnation, v. 34, where 
the same word is used again in the original, 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 243 

neither the etymology, nor common use of the 
word in other places, much less will the con- 
text here, suffer it to be understood of eternal 
damnation, but rather of such temporal judg- 
ments, which are designed by Almighty God 
to keep us from being condemned with the 
wicked and impenitent world. 

Thus we see, in short, the whole scope and 
design of the Apostle in this remarkable pas- 
sage concerning the holy sacrament. From 
whence we may easily observe, that all that 
can be reasonably inferred from what he here 
saith, is, that as it is a sin not to pray or fast, 
or give alms, or hear God's word aright, so it 
is a sin too not to receive the Lord's Supper 
aright,. or as we ought to do it. But as we must 
take heed how we hear, Luke viii. 18, so we 
must take heed how we receive, that we may 
do it with that faith and reverence which be- 
comes so divine an institution, and so heavenly 
a duty as that is, lest otherwise we offend God, 
and provoke him to lay some heavy judgment 



244 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

upon us, and, except we repent, condemn us 
at last to everlasting fire, as he justly may, for 
any sin that we stand guilty of before him. 
But it is a great affront and abuse put upon 
God's holy word, to make this an excuse for 
our not frequenting the holy communion, when 
the Apostle designed it only for an argument, 
why we should receive it always in a worthy 
and decent manner. And therefore this is the 
great and only use we should make of it, that, 
seeing " he that eateth this bread, and drinketh 
this cup of the Lord unworthily, eateth and 
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning 
the Lord's body ;" therefore, as oft as we eat 
this bread and drink this cup, we must take 
care to do it worthily discerning the Lord's 
body, and deporting ourselves accordingly in 
receiving of it. Whensoever we are invited 
to this spiritual wedding, we must be sure to 
come ; but we must be sure to come with our 
wedding-garment on, with such a temper and 
disposition of mind as becomes the place, the 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 245 

company, and the feast we go to. For which 
purpose, we must prepare ourselves before- 
hand, and put our hearts into such a frame, that 
we may so feed upon the blessed body and 
blood of Christ our Saviour, that he may pre- 
serve both our souls and bodies to eternal life. 
But then you will say, perhaps, this requires 
a great deal of time, more than we can often 
spare from our necessary employments. And 
that is the reason that we do not receive so 
often as we otherwise would. And I believe 
so too. That is the reason, the great reason 
of all, that this holy sacrament is so shamefully 
neglected by most people ! They know it is a 
very good thing, and they would oftener par- 
take of it, but that they have other business of 
greater consequence, as they wisely think, to 
mind ; so that they cannot find time enough to 
prepare themselves as they ought for it. As 
in the parable ; when a certain man had made 
a great supper, and sent his servants to call 
those which he had invited to it, they all pre- 



246 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

sently began to make excuse : " the first said 
to him, I have bought a piece of ground, and 
I must needs go and see it ; I pray thee have 
me excused. And another said, I have bought 
five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them ; I 
pray thee have me excused. And another 
said, I have married a wife, and therefore I 
cannot come," Luke xiv. 18, 19, 20. So it is 
to this day. Christ, the eternal Son of God, 
at the expense of his own blood, hath provided 
a supper, his own last supper, the best feast 
that can be had on this side heaven ; and all 
things being ready, he sends his ministers to 
invite all that are admitted into his church, to 
come and partake of it. But they all, or at 
least the far greatest part, desire to be excused. 
And if we would know the reason, it is be- 
cause they have other business to do : one 
hath his farm to look after, another his shop, a 
third his warehouse and merchandize. And so 
every one finds something or other to do ; any- 
thing rather than come to the Lord's Supper. 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 247 

But these are but vain excuses, like those in 
the parable, designed on purpose to show the 
folly of those which made them. " The first 
had bought a piece of ground, and must needs 
go and see it :" wherein he betrayed his folly, 
in buying that which he had not seen. And 
so did the second, in buying " five yoke of 
oxen" before he had proved them, to know 
whether they were fit for his turn. But the 
greatest fool of all was the last, who said, " I 
have married a wife, and therefore I cannot 
come :" as if marrying a wife could hinder him 
from com>^ to a feast. Such are the excuses 
that men commonly make for their not coming 
when they are invited to our Lord's table. 
They serve only to discover the weakness and 
folly of those which make them. For how 
can a man betray the weakness of his judgment 
more, than by preferring the most inconsider- 
able before the most valuable things that are ? 
Yet this is the case of all who at any time 
neglect the holy communion for any worldly 



248 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

business. They prefer their bodies before their 
souls : the world before their Saviour : earth, 
with all its vanities and troubles, before hea- 
ven, and all the glory that he is there prepar- 
ing for all those who keep his commandments. 
For otherwise they would never suffer any- 
thing in this world to hinder them from doing 
what he hath commanded, for their more effec- 
tual obtaining eternal salvation by him. 

But this being the most common objection 
against frequent communion, let us look a little 
more narrowly into it, that we may see what 
cause men have to make it. First, Some have 
none at all. Yea, there are many such : many 
who are not incumbered with the affairs of this 
life, having a sufficient maintenance transmitted 
to them from their ancestors, or else acquired 
already by God's blessings upon their own en- 
deavors, whereby they are able to support 
themselves and their families, without taking 
any further care about it. I do not question 
but there are many such here present at this 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 249 

time. Now what can you plead for your not 
frequenting the holy sacrament ? you cannot 
say, ye have not time to prepare yourselves ; 
for you have more upon your hands than ye 
well know what to do with. And therefore 
are often forced to invent ways how to spend 
it, which usually are as bad as to sit still and 
do nothing. And is it not a sad thing, that you 
should choose to do nothing, or worse than 
nothing, rather than that which God himself 
hath set you, and hath given you so much time, 
on purpose that nothing might divert you from 
it ? Remember, the time will come, when 
time will be no more ! and then you will wish 
with all your hearts, that you had employed it 
better while you had it. And I am sure there 
is no way possible for you to make better 
advantage of it, than by spending it in prepar- 
ing yourself for the holy communion, and then 
receiving it accordingly. This being the best 
course you can ever take, for your employing 
not only that, but all the rest of your time well. 



250 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Whereas, if you still continue to neglect so 
great a duty, notwithstanding that you have 
little or nothing else to do in the mean while : 
for my part I know not how ye can answer it 
either to God or your own consciences, nor 
what account you can give either of yourselves 
or of your time at the last day ! But this I 
know, that you have but too much cause to 
suspect and fear that all is not right within you : 
that whatsoever your temporal estate may 
seem, your spiritual is very bad : and that all 
the ease and plenty which ye now enjoy, will 
hereafter serve to no other purpose, than to 
increase your pain and misery. 

But there are others, who really have a 
great deal of worldly business upon their hands, 
more perhaps than they can well turn them to . 
But I would desire such to consider, that 
whatsoever worldly business they have, it is 
still but the business of this world, this tran- 
sient and uncertain world that soon passeth 
away : that they have another world to live in 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



251 



as well as this, a world that will have no end. 
And if they take so much care and pains about 
their living a few years, or perhaps a few days 
upon earth, they ought surely to be much 
more careful how to live eternally, as they 
must, either in heaven or hell, either in the 
greatest pleasure they can enjoy, or else in the 
greatest pain they can endure. The difference 
betwixt which two is so vastly great, that 
whosoever duly weighs and considers it, must 
needs be inclined to make it his chief study and 
business in this world, to prepare for the next : 
to seek the kingdom of God and Ms righteousness , 
in the first place, as our Saviour himself com- 
mands, Matt. vi. 33. And he who doth that, 
will be sure to order all his temporal affairs so, 
that they shall never interfere with his spiritual, 
but give place to them upon all occasions. Al- 
though he be diligent and industrious in his 
calling, yet if things so fall out, that he must 
either neglect that for a while, or else his daily 
prayers, he doth not stand pausing which he 



252 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

had best do ; as seeing there is no comparison 
at all between them, the one having respect 
only to his present, the other to his future and 
eternal state. And so for the holy sacrament. 
If he hare an opportunity put into his hands of 
receiving that, he dares not let it slip upon any 
worldly account whatsoever. As knowing that 
he may get more there, than all this world is 
worth, and lose more by the neglect of that, 
than of any other opportunity that can be 
offered him. 

This is the sense and practice of every wise 
and good man in this case. But as for such, 
whose heads and hearts as well as hands are 
so taken up with worldly business, that they 
cannot, or rather will not, spare so much time 
from that, as to prepare themselves for the holy 
communion, they plainly show that they prefer 
the things of this life, before their duty to God, 
their bodies before their souls, and their tempo- 
ral before their eternal happiness and welfare. 
These are the men of this world, who have, or 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 253 

at least desire to have their portion in this life 
rather than in the next. And these are they 
which St. Paul speaks of, where he saith, 
"many walk, of whom I have told you often, 
and now tell you even weeping, that they are 
enemies to the cross of Christ, whose end is 
destruction, whose God is their belly, whose 
glory is in their shame, who mind earthly 
things," Phil. iii. 18, 19. I wish there were 
none such among us at this time. If there be, 
it will be in vain to say much to them, their 
hearts being so full of this world, that there is 
no room left for sober and good advice. And 
therefore I shall only desire, that when they 
are at leisure, they would remember our Sa- 
viour's words, " what is a man profited, if he 
shall gain the whole world, and lose his own 
soul ; or what shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul ?" Matt. xvi. 26. 

But some of those who thus live in a crowd 
of cares for this present life, may, notwithstand- 
ing, sometimes think of their future state, and 



254 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

then they resolve to set upon the use of these 
means which God hath appointed for their sal- 
vation, and particularly the greatest of all, the 
holy sacrament, at least when their hurry of 
business is over, which they hope may be in a 
week or fortnight's time : but in the mean- 
while, they desire to be excused. 

Let us suppose, that you are so resolved at 
present. But are you sure that those resolu- 
tions will hold, and that you will be in the same 
mind a fortnight hence, that ye are now ? How 
do ye know but other business may come in 
before that, which may distract your thoughts 
as much or more than that ye have now upon 
you ? But above all, what assurance have ye 
that ye shall live so long ? And what if ye 
should die, as ye may, before that time ? What 
do ye think will then become of you ? If ye 
cannot fit yourselves for the only sacrament, 
will ye be fit to die ? No, surely ! if ye be not 
prepared to appear before Christ at his holy 
table, you will be much less prepared to ap- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 255 

pear before him at his judgment seat, where 
you will receive your final and irrevocable sen- 
tence from him. And therefore you had need 
to look about you, and to be always ready, as 
Christ himself requires you to be, with his own 
mouth, saying, " take heed to yourselves, lest 
at any time your hearts be overcharged with sur- 
feiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, 
and so that day come upon you unawares," 
Luke xxi. 34. Whence you may observe, that 
he who will be your judge, hath forewarned 
you, that the cares of this life will make you 
as unfit to appear before him, as surfeiting and 
drunkenness itself. And therefore, if you have 
any care of your souls, take heed of the cares 
of this life, that they hinder you no longer from 
receiving his most blessed body and blood as 
often as ye can ; for if they do, they will much 
more hinder you from giving a good account of 
yourselves before his tribunal. But as ye de- 
sire to be always ready for death and judgment, 
be always ready for that holy sacrament, which 



256 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

is the best preparatory in the world for it. And 
for that purpose, whensoever ye are invited to 
our Lord's table, think thus with yourselves. 
I have now an opportunity put into my hands 
of partaking of the body and blood of my ever 
blessed Saviour, to preserve my body and soul 
to everlasting life. It is true, I have at this 
time more than ordinary business upon my 
hand ; but what is all this world in compari- 
son of everlasting life and happiness ? And 
who knows whether I shall ever have such an- 
other opportunity as this as long as I live ? 
Do but, I say, think thus, and then let slip any 
such opportunity if ye can : ibr my part, if ye 
have any regard for your immortal souls, I be- 
lieve it will be very difficult, if not impossible. 
But that which deserves most to be consi- 
dered in this case, is the preparation that is 
necessarily required to the worthy receiving of 
the Lord's Supper. Concerning which many 
whole books have been written, and some so 
large, that the very reading of them requires 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



257 



more time, than a good Christian need spend 
in the duty itself. And this I believe hath 
discouraged many from receiving the holy sa- 
crament so often as they ought, and as they 
otherwise would. For meeting with such 
books as make the preparation to it, so tedious 
and troublesome, that they cannot read and ob- 
serve all that is there said about it, without 
laying aside all other business for a long time 
together, they are quite disheartened from ever 
attempting it, but when they can find a time 
wherein they have nothing else to do ; which 
to those who follow any calling, as they ought, 
happens but very rarely : who therefore very 
rarely so much as think of it, especially if they 
chance to meet with such books, as they 
sometimes may do, which makes their prepa- 
ration so nice and ticklish a thing, that they 
despair of ever observing all the little rules 
which are there laid down, and therefore sel- 
dom or never trouble their heads about it, 
which shows what great care and caution 

22 "" 



25S FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

should be used in treating upon this subject, 
lest we raise such scruples and difficulties in it, 
which may deter men from the holy sacrament, 
instead of preparing them for it. For my own 
part, I do not see but that whatsoever is gene- 
rally necessary in order to it, may be brought 
within a small compass. For it may be all re- 
duced to these few heads. 

First, to the receiving the Lord's Supper 
aright ; it is necessary that we be rightly in- 
structed in the nature and end of it, that we 
may be able to discern, as the Apostle speaks, 
the Lord's body, or understand the difference 
between that and our ordinary food ; and so 
know what we do ; without which it is impos- 
sible for us to do it as we ought. But for this 
purpose we need not run over great volumes, 
for we have everything necessary to be known 
concerning it, briefly but fully set down in our 
church catechism ; so briefly that a child may 
learn it all ; and yet so fully, that the greatest 
scholar upon earth need know no more, in or- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 259 

der to his worthy receiving this holy sacra- 
ment. For there we have the end why it was 
ordained, even, for the continual remembrance 
of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of 
the benefits which we receive thereby. There 
we have both the parts of it described and ex- 
plained to us, that bread and wine which the 
Lord commanded to he received, is the outward 
part or sign of the Lord's Supper ; and that the 
inward part or thing signified, is the body and 
blood of Christ, which are verily and indeed 
taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's 
Supper. There we have also the benefits 
whereof we are partakers thereby, even, the 
strengthening and refreshing our souls by the 
body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by 
bread and wine. In which few words, we have 
all things necessary to be known concerning this 
holy sacrament, in order to the worthy receiv- 
ing of it : and they are all so plain and easy, 
that we cannot suppose that any one who is 
bred up in the Christian religion, and is come 



260 FREQUENT COMMUNION: 

to the years of discretion, can be ignorant of 
them. And if any be, it is but turning to the 
catechism in their common prayer book, and 
there they may find them. As they may all 
things else that are requisite for them either to 
know or believe, or do, or desire, that they 
may be saved. 

In the next place, as in all our addresses to 
Almighty God, so especially in this, we ought 
certainly to endeavor all we can, to prepare 
ourselves before-hand for it. For which pur- 
pose the Apostle lays down this general rule, 
" let a man examine himself, and so let him eat 
of that bread, and drink of that cup," 1 Cor. xi. 
28. But he doth not tell us particularly what 
we should examine ourselves about, because 
that may be easily gathered from what he there 
saith concerning the sacrament itself, and the 
manner of receiving it. But lest we should be 
mistaken in it, our Church hath taken care 
to give us particular directions about it, 
in the last words of her catechism, where she 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



261 



tells us that it is required of them who come 
to the Lord's Supper, " to examine themselves 
whether they repent them truly of their former 
sins, steadfastly purposing to lead a new life ; 
have a lively faith in God's mercy through 
Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his 
death, and be in charity with all men." Which 
words are so plain, that they cannot be made 
plainer ; and yet so full, that they contain all 
that can be truly and pertinently said upon this 
subject. If ye read all the books that have been 
written, and all the directions that are there 
given about your preparation to the Lord's Sup- 
per, you will find a great many more words, 
but all that are to the purpose, amount to no 
more than what is here said. I do not deny 
but that the reading of such or any other books 
of devotions that are written with that care 
and prudence which the subject requires, may 
be a good help to bring your minds into a fit 
temper and disposition for the blessed sacra- 
ment. But still this is the sum and substance 



262 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

of all that you need to do in order to it, even 
to set apart some time before-hand wherein to 
examine yourselves, whether you truly repent 
of your former sins so as steadfastly to purpose 
for the future to lead a new life : whether you 
have a lively faith in God's mercies through 
Christ joined with a thankful remembrance of his 
death : and whether ye be in charity with all 
men. And if, upon due examination, ye find 
that ye have such repentance, such faith, and 
such charity as this is, which be sure all true 
Christians have, you need not doubt but that 
you are fit to- receive the holy sacrament, and 
ought accordingly to do it. But that ye may 
be more fully assured of it, especially at the 
time of receiving, the church itself is pleased 
to tell you it in the exhortation at the same time, 
saying, " judge therefore yourselves, brethren, 
that ye be not judged of the Lord ; repent you 
truly for your sins past, have a lively and stead- 
fast faith in Christ our Saviour, amend your 
lives, and be in perfect charity \t T ith all men. 



/' 



V 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 263 

So shall ye be meet partakers of these holy 
mysteries." And, therefore, she afterwards 
invites all that are so prepared to draw near 
with faith, and to receive the holy sacrament to 
their comfort. 

This, therefore, is all that is necessarily re- 
quired to the worthy receiving of the Lord's 
Supper. But all this may be easily done by 
any true Christian. It requires no great parts 
or learning, nor time neither, for a man to look 
into his own heart, to review his life, to con- 
sider wherein he hath hitherto done amiss, and 
to resolve by God's blessing to do so no more, 
but to endeavor all he can to lead for the future 
a new and holy life, as becomes the gospel of 
Christ. This is no more than what many do 
every day, or at least very often, whether they 
are to receive the holy sacrament or no : and 
so are always ready, whensoever they can get 
an opportunity to receive it. Especially, if 
they have been long accustomed to it. For 
by this means, their repentance, faith, charity, 



264 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

and all other graces, being kept in continual 
exercise, and receiving strength and nourish- 
ment from the body and blood of Christ fre- 
quently communicated unto them ; they by de- 
grees grow up into habit and custom, so as to 
be ready upon all occasions to exert and put 
forth themselves with ease and pleasure. And, 
therefore, such happy persons need not spend 
much time in their actual preparation for the 
holy communion, as having such an habitual 
disposition, whereby they are always duly 
qualified and prepared for it. Insomuch, that 
if they happen to come into a place where it 
is administered, although theyjdid not know or 
think of it before they came, yet they can re- 
ceive the benefit and comfort of it, and bless 
God for giving them such an opportunity, which 
they did not look for, but being put in their 
hands, they cannot but take hold of it, and im- 
prove it to their best advantage. 

These, I confess, may seem to be of the 
higher rank of Christians, to which few ascend 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 265 

the ordinary way, without more than ordinary 
care and diligence in the use of those means, 
which, by the grace of God accompanying of 
them, lead up to it. But we must not think, 
as some have done, that none but such as these 
should receive the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per : for that was intended for all that believe 
in Christ, and are baptized in his name : yea, 
they are all commanded to do this in remem- 
brance of him, one as well as another ; the 
weak as well as the strong in faith. The weak, 
that they may be strong : and the strong, that 
they may not be weak again, but rather grow 
stronger and stronger, till they " come unto a 
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ," Eph. iv. 13. I know 
there are many ignorant, though perhaps well- 
meaning persons among us, yea, and some who 
pretend to great knowledge in the mysteries of 
our religion, who yet think that none but great 
men and eminent saints should come to the 
holy sacrament ; they who have attained al- 



266 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

ready to such an excellent and divine temper of 
mind, as to live always above this world, and 
out of the reach of the devil and his tempta- 
tions : but as for others, who are conscious to 
themselves of their daily infirmities, and are 
often in danger of being overpowered by one 
temptation or other, they must by no means 
venture upon it. But this certainly is a very 
great and dangerous mistake, and one of the 
devil's tricks, to keep men off from using the 
best weapons, whereby to resist and conquer 
him. For all Christ's disciples are equally 
bound by his command to dt) this in remembrance 
of Him. And all have equally need of it. If 
any want it more than others^ it must be such 
whose faith is so weak, as not to be able as yet 
to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
but are still wrestling and fighting with these 
their spiritual enemies, and therefore have need 
of all the aids and assistances which the Cap- 
tain of our Salvation hath provided in that case : 
of which the receiving his most blessed body 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 267 

and blood was always found to be the most 
powerful and prevalent. 

But that it may be so to them, it is necessary 
that such persons take pains in preparing them- 
selves for it. They must look back upon their 
lives, and bring to their remembrance as many 
as they can of their former sins, especially such 
as they have been most guilty of, and whereby 
they have most* offended and dishonored Al- 
mighty God ; and must not only abhor and 
humble themselves for them, but also resolve 
never to commit them any more. They must 
search narrowly into their own hearts, to find 
out the weakest side, and resolve to set a 
stronger watch and guard than they used to do 
about it. They must bethink themselves what 
sort of temptations they have been most subject 
to, and oftenest overcome by ; and must resolve 
never to give way to them any more, but to 
withstand them with all their might. They 
must consider what place, what company, what 
employment, what recreations, or other circum- 



268 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

stances of their life, have exposed them most 
to such temptations, and have been the chief 
occasions of their falling into sin, and must re- 
solve for the future to forsake and avoid them. 
They must consult their own breasts, to know 
how they have performed their duties to God, 
and used the means that he hath appointed, for 
their obtaining grace at his hands : how they 
have fasted and watched : how they have 
prayed both in public and private ; how they 
have read and heard God's holy word; and 
how they have received the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper : whether they have lived in the 
neglect of some or other of these necessary du- 
ties, or else performed them in a careless and 
superficial manner ; and must resolve to be 
more constant, and more hearty and sincere in 
all and every one of them, than hitherto they 
have been. They must examine themselves, 
whether they be in charity and in faith : whe- 
ther they really believe all the articles of the 
Christian religion, and have a sure trust and 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 269 

confidence in Christ their Saviour, and in all 
the promises which God hath made to mankind 
in him, and must resolve to continue firm and 
steadfast in the same unto the end. And they 
must make all these holy resolutions, not in 
their own, but in the name of Jesus Christ, be- 
lieving and depending upon him for grace and 
power to perform them, so as to live accord- 
ingly for the future all the rest of their days. 
In short, they must call to mind the solemn 
vow and promise which they made to God 
when they were admitted into his Church by 
the sacrament of baptism, and must now renew 
and ratify the same at the sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper, faithfully promising again to 
him, and purposing with themselves, by his as- 
sistance, to believe and do as they then pro- 
mised, and to continue in the same unto their 
lives' end. *-*" 

They who, have thus prepared themselves 
for the Lord's Supper, whensoever it is admin- 
istered, may, and ought, most thankfully to re- 



270 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

ceive it, not doubting but they shall find favor 
and acceptance with God, and great benefit and 
advantage to themselves by it, through his 
merits and intercession, whose body and blood 
they there receive. And yet all this may be 
easily and soon done by any of Christ's disci- 
ples, by those of the lowest as well as of the 
highest forms in his school. Yea, it ought to 
be often done by all, at other times as well as 
when they are to receive the holy communion. 
It is true, it is in a particular manner requisite 
and necessary, that a man examine himself be- 
fore he eat of that bread, and drink of that cup ; 
because, unless a man first knows the true state 
of his soul, he will not know how to make the 
right use of what he there receives, to his 
spiritual advantage. The sacrament of Christ's 
body and blood is an universal remedy for all 
the distempers of our souls. But except a man 
knows where his distemper lies, and what part 
is most affected, he cannot apply the medicine 
to it, and so can receive no benefit from it. But, 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 271 

howsoever, we must not think that self-exami- 
nation is a duty to be performed only upon that 
occasion. For he who never examines him- 
self, but only when he is to receive the holy 
sacrament, had need to receive it very often, 
or else he will be a great stranger to himself, 
not knowing what condition he is in, nor what 
progress he makes in the way to heaven : but 
rather will have just cause to suspect that he 
goes backward, and grows worse and worse 
every day. And, therefore, he who is really 
solicitous about his future state, as all true 
Christians be sure are, cannot but often reflect 
upon himself, and upon his present condition, 
although he have not an opportunity of partak- 
ing of Christ's body and blood, as yet to make 
it better. And if he lives in a place, as many 
do, where such opportunities are seldom to be 
had, he must, notwithstanding, often call him- 
self to account, look into the state of his soul, 
and settle all his spiritual affairs, as solemnly as 
if he was to receive the holy sacrament imme- 



272 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

diately upon it. By this means he will be al- 
ways prepared for it, and always longing and 
thirsting after it, and ready to catch at the next 
opportunity he can get of receiving it. And in 
the meanwhile he may make a shift to keep up 
his mind in a pretty good temper, through the 
grace and mercy of God, who, knowing that it 
is not his own fault that he doth not actually 
receive the holy sacrament, will be graciously 
pleased, as we have good ground to believe, to 
make up the want of it some other way. 

But, blessed be God for it, this is not our 
case, who may receive the holy communion 
every Lord's day in the year^and oftener too 
if we have a mind to it. How happy would 
some good people think themselves, if they 
could have such opportunities as these are ! 
And how miserable shall we be if we neglect 
and slight them ! For my part, I do not see 
how we shall be able to answer it either to 
God, or to ourselves another day. Neither do 
I know what excuse or pretence any can have 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 273 

for it, besides those which we have now re- 
fated ; except it be this one, which some have 
made to themselves, even, that they have been 
several times at the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper, but have not found that benefit and 
comfort from it which they expected, and, 
therefore, think it to no purpose for them to 
receive it oftener than they are obliged to do it, 
in order to their continuing in the communion of 
the Church. 

This I know hath been a great stumbling- 
block to many well-meaning people, and there- 
fore I shall endeavor to remove it out of the 
way as clearly as I can. For which purpose 
we may first observe, that what God commands 
us to do, we are therefore to do it, because he 
commands it, whether we can get anything by 
it or no. Otherwise we do it, not for his sake, 
but our own : not in obedience to his com- 
mand, but in hopes of profit and advantage to 
ourselves ; whereby it ceaseth to be a good 

work, or any way acceptable to God, in that 
__ 



274 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

we do not respect him, but ourselves ; and so 
prefer ourselves before him in it, as in our pre- 
sent case. We are commanded by God, our 
Saviour, to do this in remembrance of him. 
Now if we do it only in expectation of gaining 
something to ourselves by it, we do not regard 
or obey him at all in it ; in that we neither do 
it therefore because he commanded it, nor as 
he commanded it to be done. For he com- 
manded it to be done in remembrance of him; 
and so made that, not our profit, the chief end 
of his institution. And therefore although he 
hath commanded us nothing but what is really 
for our good, and that this is^so in a high and 
special manner, yet we must not make that our 
end in doing it, but we must eat this bread and 
drink this cup in remembrance of Him, whether 
we receive any benefit from it or no ; yea, al- 
though we were sure to have none ; and so do 
it in pure and sincere obedience to his com- 
mandment. Which whosoever doth will be 
sure one time or other to find the benefit 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



275 



and comfort of it, though not perhaps at pre- 
sent. 

For the blessed body and blood of Christ receiv- 
ed, as it ought to be, with a quick and lively faith, 
will most certainly have its desired effect. 
But it operates for the most part upon our souls, 
as ordinary food doth upon our bodies, insensi- 
bly and by degrees. We eat and drink every 
day, and by that means our bodies grow to their 
full stature, and are then kept in life, health 
and vigor, though we ourselves know not how 
this is done, nor perhaps take any notice of it. 
So it is with this our spiritual meat and drink, 
which God hath prepared for our souls. By 
eating and drinking frequently of it, we grow 
by degrees in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and still con- 
tinue steadfast and active in the true faith and 
fear of God, though, after all, we may be no 
way sensible how this wonderful effect is 
wrought in us, but only as we find it to be so 
by our own experience. And if we do that, 



276 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

we have no cause to complain that we get no- 
thing by it ; for we get more than all the world 
is worth, being strengthened in the inward man, 
and so made more fit for the service of God, 
more constant in it, and more able to perform 
it : or at least are kept from falling back, and 
preserved from many sins and temptations, 
which otherwise we might be exposed to. 
And this surely is enough to make any one, 
that really minds the good of his soul, to hun- 
ger and thirst after this bread and water of life, 
and to eat and drink it as often as he can, al- 
though he do not presently feel the happy effect 
of it, as some have done, ^nd as he himself 
sometimes may, when God seeth it necessary 
or convenient for him. In the meanwhile, he 
may rest satisfied in his mind, that he is in the 
way that Christ hath made to heaven, and 
thank God for giving him so many opportuni- 
ties of partaking of Christ's body and blood, and 
also grace to lay hold of them, to improve them 
to his own unspeakable comfort, such as usual- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



277 



ly attends the worthy receiving of the Lord's 
Supper ; whereby we are not only put in mind of 
the great sacrifice which the Son of God offer- 
ed for our sins, but likewise have it actually 
communicated unto us, for our pardon and re- 
conciliation to the almighty governor of the 
world, which is the greatest comfort we can 
have on this side heaven ; so great, that we 
shall never be able to express it unto others, 
how deeply soever we may be affected with it 
in ourselves: And though we be not always 
thus sensibly cheered and refreshed with it, 
as we could wish to be ; howsoever, we can 
never receive the blessed sacrament, but we 
have the pleasure and satisfaction of having 
done our duty to our Maker and Redeemer, 
which far exceeds all the comforts of this life, 
and therefore may well stay our stomachs till 
God sees good to give us more. 

But let us now suppose, that a man hath 
been often at our Lord's table, and yet hath 
seldom or never received any real benefit or 



i 



27S FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

comfort from it, not so much as that which 
ariseth from our reflecting upon our having 
done what our Saviour commanded us. This, 
I confess, may be the case of some persons. 
But then such should consider where the fault 
lies. It cannot lie in the institution itself. 
That can never fail of producing the same ef- 
fect, where it is duly observed, at one time as 
well as at another, and in one person as much 
as in another, and therefore the fault must be 
in the persons themselves ; they do not duly 
observe the institution, and then it is no won- 
der if they be never the better for it. Now 
there are two things required to the due ob- 
servance of it : First ^ that men come rightly 
prepared to the holy sacrament y and then, that 
they receive it aright. They who fail either 
of these ways, must blame themselves if they 
miss of what they expected from it. What is 
necessary to the preparing ourselves for it, I 
have already spoken of, and have shown, that 
it is no more than what may be easily done, if 






FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



279 



men will but set themselves in good earnest 
about it. But if men will not do that, but come 
to the Lord's table as they do to their own, 
without putting themselves, by God's assist- 
ance, into a right temper and disposition for it, 
they have no ground to expect any advantage 
by it, for they are not subjects capable of those 
spiritual profits and pleasures which are there 
exhibited. Their hearts are not set towards 
them, b.ut rather bent quite another way, and 
therefore cannot possibly be touched or affected 
by them. What wonderful power hath the sun 
upon plants and seeds in the earth, to make 
them grow and bring forth fruit ! And yet 
such plants or seeds which are rotten, corrupt- 
ed, or not rightly set and disposed as they 
ouo-ht to be, are never the better for the influ- 
ences of the sun, but remain just as they were, 
how long soever it shines upon them. So it is 
here : Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, shines 
most powerfully in his Church, especially at 
the commemoration of the great eclipse which 



280 FREQUENT COMMUNION'. 

he once suffered, as they find by experience 
who come duly prepared to it, being so quick- 
ened, enlivened, actuated, and strengthened by 
it, that they bring forth love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, goodness, faith, and all the other fruits 
of God's Holy Spirit, as they are reckoned up 
by his Apostles, Gal. v. 22, 23 ) whereas, they 
who are disordered and out of tune, and will 
not take pains to put themselves into a suita- 
ble temper and disposition for it, they, are no 
way wrought upon, or influenced by it, but still 
continue barren and unfruitful. And so all 
must needs do who come not rightly qualified 
to the holy sacrament ; they_xannot truly eat 
of the blessed body and blood of Christ, and if 
they did, they could not digest it into proper 
food and nourishment for their souls, and so 
can receive no real profit or advantage by it ; 
which, notwithstanding, should not discourage 
any from coming as oft as they can to the Lord's 
table, but should rather excite them to prepare 
themselves always as well as they can for it, 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



281 



for then they will never complain of unprofit- 
ableness any more. But let them come as 
often as they please, they will every time go 
home better than they came, if they do but 
come thus rightly disposed to receive the body 
and blood of Christ, which is there communi- 
cated to them, and then likewise receive it also 
as they ought. 

How they ought to receive it, is the next 
question to be considered, and it had need be 
considered very seriously by all that expect 
any benefit from the Lord's Supper ; for, al- 
though they come with never so good a dispo- 
sition to it, yet unless they keep themselves in 
the same, while they are at it, and actually 
partake of Christ's body and blood, according 
to his holy institution, their expectations will 
be all frustrated : for the great benefit which 
we receive from this holy sacrament is, the 
strengthening and refreshing of our souls, by the 
body and blood of Christ, as our bodies are by 

bread and wine. But as our bodies cannot be 
— 



283 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

strengthened or refreshed by bread and wine, 
unless we eat and drink it, so neither can our 
souls be so by the body and blood of Christ, 
unless we actually partake of it. But our 
souls cannot actually partake of the body and 
blood of Christ, any other way than by some 
act of their own, even by acting their faith in 
what is there signified and represented to 
them. What we there see with our bodily 
eyes, although consecrated to a holy use, it is 
still in its own nature plain bread and wine, 
which may strengthen and refresh our bodies, 
but can have no such influence or effect upon 
our souls, as being of a quite different nature 
from them ; but, by faith, we look upon them 
as the signs and symbols of Christ's body and 
blood, and receive them as such upon his word, 
which, as I have shown, is a mighty strength- 
ening and refreshing to our souls. But we can 
never thus receive Christ's body and blood, 
nor so much as discern it, any other way but 
by a quick and lively faith ; but that, as the 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 283 

Apostle saith, " Is the substance of things hop- 
ed for, and the evidence of things not seen," 
Heb. xi. 1. The body and blood of Christ is 
not seen in the holy sacrament, but faith doth 
plainly evidence, yea, itself is the evidence of 
it to us ; so that by faith I am as fully persuad- 
ed of it, as if I saw it. And although we do 
not see it there, yet we hope for it, because of 
Christ's word ; and what we thus hope for, 
our faith is the substance of it to us, causing it 
to subsist and operate in us as effectually, to 
all intents and purposes, as we can expect or 
desire, for the strengthening and refreshing of 
our souls. Whereas, without such a faith as 
this, we can receive nothing but bread and wine, 
and by consequence, no spiritual benefit or com- 
fort at all from the holy sacrament : and that 
is the reason why, according to the appoint- 
ment of our Church, at the distribution of the 
sacramental bread, we say to every communi- 
cant, Take, and eat this in remembrance that 
Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart 



284 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

by faith ; whereby every one is put in mind, in 
the very act of receiving, that he must there 
feed upon Christ by faith, as the only means 
whereby he can partake of his body and blood, 
so as to receive strength and nourishment to 
his soul from that holy feast. 

For indeed the whole stress of this great work 
lies upon our faith. Unless that be duly ex- 
erted and acted, though men come to the 
Lord's table, and feed upon the outward ele- 
ments, which are there given them, this is not 
to eat the Lord's Supper ; for that is a spiritual 
banquet, which cannot be so much as tasted of 
any otherwise than by faith, and therefore they 
who do not receive it with faith, have no cause 
to complain that they axe never the better for 
receiving the Lord's Supper, for they do really 
receive it no more than as if they were not pre- 
sent where it is administered, and so can ex- 
pect no more benefit from it, than from food or 
physic which they do not take. But this should 
not dishearten any from coming to the Lord's 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



291 



and reverence to Christ himself, whose gospel 
it is, and whose words and works they hear 
rehearsed ; and therefore must needs stand up 
to hearken diligently to them, as they would 
have certainly done, if they had been near him 
when he spake or did them. And hence also 
it is, that in the first common-prayer book, 
which was put out by king Edward the Sixth, 
so soon as the minister had said, The holy gos- 
pel is written in such a chapter, the people 
were ordered to say, Glory be to thee, O Lord, 
to testify their acknowledgment, that he whose 
gospel they were now to hear is their Lord 
and Master, the great and Almighty God, that 
all glory and honor is due to him for revealing 
this gospel to them, and accordingly to adore 
and worship him for it. As all should do when 
they pronounce these words. 

So soon as the gospel is read, the Nicene 
creed begins, which itself also contains the sum 
and substance of the gospel ; and therefore is 
appointed to be said or sung by all the people, 



292 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

standing in the same posture as they did in 
hearing of the gospel. And that, I suppose, 
is the reason why, although after the reading 
of the epistle, the minister is to say, Here end- 
eih the epistle ; yet, after the reading of the 
gospel, he is not to say, Here endeth the gospel 
(as many, who do not consider the rubric, are 
wont to do), because the gospel doth not pro- 
perly end there, but continues to be declared 
and published in the following creed ; in which 
are briefly comprehended all the great articles 
of that holy religion which Christ hath revealed 
to us in his gospel ; and therefore it ought to 
be jointly repeated by all the_people there pre- 
sent, that all may thereby publicly own and 
profess their belief of all and every one of those 
articles, and so of the whole gospel of Christ, 
in order to their being admitted to the holy 
communion ; which otherwise they ought not 
to be. 

After this creed, there follows one of the 
homilies, or sermons set forth by authority, or 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 289 

self, openly declaring and making known his 
laws particularly unto us, whereby our sins 
and infirmities are brought afresh to our re- 
membrance, and we come to the holy sacra- 
ment with an actual sense of them upon our 
minds, and so are better able to apply the great 
remedy which is there prepared for our ease 
and cure. Upon which account I cannot but 
admire the prudence as well as piety of our 
Church, in appointing the commandments to be 
publicly read upon this occasion. 

The commandments of Almighty God hav- 
ing been thus solemnly read to us, in obedience 
to them we first pray, as we are bound to do 
in every distinct service, for his vicegerent 
upon earth, and then for ourselves and brethren 
in the collect for the day, which, if it be a 
Holy-day, hath respect to the blessing we then 
commemorate, otherwise it is for some special 
grace or mercy that we have all need of. 

After this follows the epistle, that is, some 
part of those epistles which St. Paul, or other 



290 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

Apostles, wrote by the inspiration of God, 
wherein we are usually reminded of some of 
those duties which we heard before enjoined 
us in the commandments, or upon some parti- 
cular occasions, some other portions of Scrip- 
ture relafmg to that occasion. Then follows 
the gospel, or some of the divine sayings, or 
acts of our blessed Saviour, as they are record- 
ed by one of the four Evangelists, which never 
alters. There is never any other portion of 
Scripture appointed for the gospel, as there is 
for the epistle ; but that is always taken out of 
the very gospel itself; by which means we 
always hear something which Christ himself 
spake with his divine mouth, for our instruc- 
tion, when he was upon earth, or else some- 
thing which he did, by his divine power, for 
the confirmation of our faith in him. Hence 
it is, that, at the reading of the gospel, the peo- 
ple are all required to stand up, not only to 
show their readiness to stand by and defend it 
to the last, but likewise to express their respect 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 287 

which he himself composed, and left to his 
church as a standing general form, to be used 
by all persons, at all times and upon all occa- 
sions, to which it is fitted in such a wonderful 
manner, as sufficiently shows both the author 
and intent of it. To this is subjoined a short 
prayer, for this particular occasion, that God 
would be pleased to cleanse the thoughts of our 
hearts by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit , that 
we may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify 
his holy name, in keeping his commandments, 
which immediately after are so solemnly re- 
peated in his name, by one of his ministers, 
standing at his table, that we may and ought 
to hearken to them with the same attention, 
reverence and godly fear, as if God himself 
pronounced them again to us, as he did to the 
Israelites, from Mount Sinai, with thunderings 
and lightnings, and the noise of the angelic 
trumpet sounding in our ears, Exod. xx. 1 ? 18. 
While we are thus hearkening to these divine 
laws, distinctly published and proclaimed to 



288 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

every one of us in particular, we cannot but 
every one call to mind his own sins, whereby 
he hath offended against these laws, and how 
unable he hath been to keep any one of them 
as he ought, without the grace of God ; and, 
therefore, we have no sooner heard any of them 
repeated, but we immediately beg of God mer- 
cifully to pardon our former transgressions of 
it, and to give us grace to observe it for the 
future, saying after the repetition of each com- 
mandmentj from the bottom of our hearts, as 
well as with our mouth, Lord, have mercy upon 
us , and incline our hearts to keep this law : all 
which must needs be acknowledged to be of 
great use to our due commemoration of that 
death, which the Son of God suffered for these 
our sins, and to our partaking of his body and 
blood for the pardon of them, and for grace to 
walk hereafter in all the commandments of the 
Lord blameless. For though we did not ex- 
amine ourselves privately before, we do it again 
publicly, in the special presence of God him- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION, 285 

Supper as often as they can, but should make 
them more and more careful to receive it al- 
ways as they ought, with faith; and then they 
can never fail of their expectations from it, but 
will always receive as much, and often more, 
than they could expect. 

By this we may see, how we ought to re- 
ceive the Lord's Supper : if we desire to partake 
of the benefits of it, we must receive it with 
faith. And hence it is, that our Church hath, 
in her great wisdom, so contrived that incom- 
parable office which she hath made for the ad- 
ministration of this holy sacrament, that, from 
the beginning to the end of it, there is matter 
and occasion given us all along for the exercise 
of our faith in Christ, and the promises which 
God hath made us in him, that so we may be 
sure to partake of his most blessed body and 
blood, and of all the merits of his death, when- 
soever we meet together for the celebration of 
it. Which that I may the better demonstrate, 
and likewise show how we should act our faith 



286 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

all the while that we are at our Lord's table, 
so as to receive spiritual strength and comfort 
from it, it will not be amiss if we go through 
the whole office, especially, so much of it as is, 
or ought to be, always used when there is a 
communion, and not at any other time. From 
the beginning of the service, to the end of the 
prayer for Christ's holy Catholic Church, is 
appointed to be read upon Sundays and Hobj- 
daySj although there be no communion ; but if 
there be a communion in the Church upon any 
other day, as well as those, it ought to be read. 
And, therefore, it will be expedient to premise 
something concerning that, _at least so much, 
that we may understand the design of it, and 
how it makes way for our better performing of 
this great duty. 

This service therefore being appointed for the 
communion of the body and blood of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, as it is to be all and 
always read at his table, by one of his minis- 
ters, so it begins with his prayer — the prayer 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 293 

else one composed by the minister himself, for 
the fuller explication of some part of the said 
creed, or else of the commandments before re- 
peated. Which, therefore, comes in very pro- 
perly in this place, after the summary of that 
Christian doctrine, according to which all ser- 
mons ought to be framed. After sermon, the 
Priest returns to the Lord's table, and then be- 
gins the offertory, reading some sentences of 
holy scripture chosen out on purpose to excite 
and stir up the people to give, every one ac- 
cording to his ability, something to pious and 
charitable uses. And while these sentences 
are in reading, the deacons, church-wardens, 
or some fit persons appointed for that purpose, 
gather the alms and other devotions of the peo- 
ple, and bring them to the Priest, who humbly 
presents and placeth them upon the Lord's 
table, as devoted to him, and then begins the 
prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church 
militant here on earth. 

Thus much of the communion service, even 



294 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

from the beginning of it, to the end of the fore- 
said prayer for Christ's catholic Church, is to 
be said upon Sundays and other Holy-days, al- 
though there be no communion, for want of a 
sufficient number to communicate with the 
Priest. In the first common-prayer book of 
king 'Edw ard the Sixth, it was ordered that the 
Priest, although there were none to communi- 
cate with him, shall say all things at the altar 
appointed to be said at the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper, until after the offertory, upon 
Wednesdays and Fridays, without any mention 
of Sundays and Holy-days. From whence it 
appears, that they took it Jbr granted, that 
there would always be a sufficient number of 
communicants, upon every Sunday and Holy- 
day at the least, so that they could not so much 
as suppose there would be no communion upon 
any of those days. But it seems they feared 
that upon other days there might be sometimes 
none to communicate with the Priest, and so 
no communion. And therefore ordered, that 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 295 

if it should so happen for a whole week to- 
gether, yet nevertheless upon the Wednesdays 
and Fridays in every week, so much shall be 
said of the communion service as is before 
limited. But afterwards, as piety grew colder 
and colder, the sacrament began to be more 
and more neglected, and by degrees quite laid 
aside upon the week days. And then the 
Church did not think it convenient to order any 
of the service appointed for it to be read upon 
any other days but only upon Sundays and 
Holy-days. But upon those days she still re- 
quires, that, although there be no communion, 
yet all shall be said that is appointed at the 
communion until the end of the general prayer 
( for the good estate of the catholic Church of 
Christ), together with one or more of the col- 
lects at the end of the communion service, con- 
cluding with the blessing. 

And verily there is great reason it should be 
so. Not only because it is fitting that our de- 
votions should be longer upon those than they 



296 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

are upon other days ; but likewise there are 
several things particular in that part of the ser- 
vice, which require it. 

Here are the commandments of Almighty- 
God, the supreme lawgiver of the world, which 
it is requisite that people should hear, and be 
put in mind of, at least upon those days which 
are dedicated to his service. Here is the col- 
lect, epistle, and gospel, proper to many Sun- 
days, and to all the Holy-days in the year, with- 
out which they could not be distinguished from 
one another, nor from other days, nor by con- 
sequence celebrated, so as to answer the end 
of their institution, unless they were read upon 
their proper days. Here is the Nicene creed, 
wherein the divinity of our blessed Saviour is 
asserted and declared, and therefore very pro- 
per to be said or sung upon those days which 
are kept in memory of him, and of his Apostles, 
by whom that doctrine, together with our 
whole religion grounded upon it, was planted 
and propagated in the world. Here is the of- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



297 



fertory and choice sentences of scripture, read 
to stir up people to offer unto God something 
of what he hath given them, as their acknow- 
ledgment that he gives them all they have, 
and that they hold it all of him ; which, how- 
soever it be now generally neglected, except 
there be a communion, yet people ought cer- 
tainly to be put in mind of it at least upon all 
Hnly-days and especially upon the Lord's own 
day, according to his own order, written by his 
Apostle St. Paul y 1 Cor. xvi. 2. Here, among 
others, is the prayer for the whole state of 
Christ's Church militant here on earth ; and it 
is but reason that we, as fellow members of the 
same body should join together in it upon all 
the great festivals of the year, which are gene- 
rally celebrated by the whole Church we pray 
for, and by that means testify our communion 
with it. And besides this, as well as the other 
part of the communion service, is performed at 
the communion table, the place where the pri- 
mitive Church used to perform its public devo- 






298 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

tions, and ours, which in all things else is con- 
formable to that, cannot but imitate it in this 
particular at least, so far as to have some part 
of its service performed at the same place upon 
Sundays and Holy-days, although there be no 
communion. 

But the main reason why so much of the 
communion service is ordered to be read upon 
Sundays and other Holy-days, notwithstanding 
that there is no communion, seems to be, that 
the Church may show her readiness to admin- 
ister it upon these days, and so that it is not 
her's, nor the minister's, but the people's fault, 
if there be no communion. For the minister, 
by her order, goes up to the Lord's table 1 and 
there begins the service appointed for the com- 
munion, and goes on as far he can, till he come 
to the actual celebration of it, and if he stops 
there, it is only because there are none, or not 
a sufficient number of persons, to communicate 
with him ; for if there were, he was bound and 
is ready to consecrate and administer it to them. 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



299 



And therefore if there be no communion upon 
any Sunday or Holy-day in the year, the peo- 
ple only are to be blamed, and must answer 
for it another day. The Church hath done her 
part in ordering it, and the minister his in ob- 
serving that order : and if the people would do 
theirs too, the holy communion would be con- 
stantly celebrated in every parish church in 
England y every Sunday and Holy-day through- 
out the year. Neither can they plead igno- 
rance in the case, or say they did not think it 
to be their duty to communicate so often. For 
every time they see the minister go up to the 
communion table, and there read part of the 
service appointed for the holy communion, they 
are put in mind of their duty, and upbraided 
with their neglect of it. From all which we 
may observe by the way, how much those 
ministers are to be blamed, who ever omit 
this part of the service, or do not perform 
it at the place appointed for it. How they 
can answer it to God, to the Church, to their 



300 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

people, o*r to themselves, for my part I know 
not. 

Having thus briefly run over so much of the 
communion service as is to be read when there 
is no communion, as well as when there is, we 
are now come to that part of it, which never 
is, nor can be used, but only when the holy 
communion is actually administered ; and there- 
fore is chiefly to be considered in our present 
design, of showing how we may and ought to 
receive it, so as to find the benefit and comfort 
of it. For which purpose we may observe, 
that after the prayer for Christ's holy catholic 
Church before mentioned, the minister, who is 
always a priest, seeing a competent number of 
devout Christians ready and desirous to partake 
of the body and blood of our blessed Redeem- 
er, first reads to them a grave, pious, and pa- 
thetical exhortation, to consider what they are 
about to do, of how great benefit it will be to 
them, if with a true, penitent heart, and lively 
faith, they receive that holy sacrament : how 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 301 

dangerous to receive the same unworthily ; how 
they should come to it ; what cause they have 
to give their most hearty thanks to the most 
Holy Trinity, for the redemption of the world 
by Jesus Christ, who ordained these holy mys- 
teries as pledges of his love, and for the con- 
tinual remembrance of his death, to our great 
and endless comfort. All which is so clearly 
and affectionately expressed, that it contributes 
very much to the making up the defects of 
their preparation for it, and to raise their minds 
into such an holy and devout temper, as to be 
capable both of performing this great duty aright, 
and of receiving the benefits and comforts of it. 
The exhortation being ended, the minister 
(in the name of Christ and his Church) inviteth 
all who are thus godly disposed, to the Lord's 
Supper, saying to them, draw near with faith, 
and take this holy sacrament to your comfort. 
He invites them first to draw near, thereby 
putting them in mind, that they are now invited 
into Christ's more special presence, to sit down 



302 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

with him at his own table, that so they may be 
as near him as they can be in this world, and 
therefore, as an emblem thereof, should come 
from the more remote parts of the church, as 
near to the said table as they may. But then 
he adviseth them to draw near with faith, as 
without which all their bodily approaches will 
avail them nothing, it being only by faith 
that they can really draw near to Christ, and 
take this holy sacrament to their comfort. And 
therefore they should take special notice of this 
expression, used on purpose in this place, to 
stir up their pure minds by way of remem- 
brance, to keep their faith in continual exercise 
all the while that they are at our Lord's table, 
so as to look upon him as there present with 
them, observing all the motions both of their 
souls and bodies, and ready to communicate his 
own most blessed body and blood unto them, to 
preserve their souls and bodies to everlasting 
life. But seeing they cannot act their faith as 
they ought in Christ, who died for their sins, 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 303 

until they have confessed and repented of 
them ; therefore he calls upon them to make 
their humble confession to Almighty God, 
meekly kneeling upon their knees. 

And now all that are to communicate, being- 
prostrate upon their knees, as so many guilty 
malefactors before the judge of the whole world, 
do in a most humble and solemn manner jointly 
acknowledge and bewail the manifold sins and 
wickedness which they from time to time have com-' 
mitted in thought, word, and deed, against his di- 
vine majesty. Professing themselves most ear- 
nestly to repent of them, humbly beseeching him 
to pardon what is past, and to grant them grace 
for the future to serve and please him in newness 
of life, for Christ Jesus' sake. All which is done 
with such apposite and pathetical words, that I 
do not see how it is possible for us to express 
our hearty and sincere repentance better than 
we do at that time. 

While the people continue in this humble pos- 
ture, begging for mercy and grace at the hands 



304 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

of God, his minister stands up, and in his name 
assures them, that he of his infinite mercy hath 
promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with 
hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him, 
and therefore he applies the said promises to all, 
and every one there present, praying that Al- 
mighty God would accordingly have mercy upon 
them, pardon and deliver them from all their 
sins j confirm and strengthen them in all goodness, 
and bring them to everlasting life, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. 

And here it is that our faith must begin to 
work, as it is the substance of things hoped for, or 
a solid and substantial confidence that God will 
give us all the good things which he hath pro- 
mised, and we therefore hope for at his hands, 
so as firmly and steadfastly to believe that, upon 
our hearty and sincere repentance, we are now 
absolved from all our former sins, and that from 
this time forward, God will assist us with his 
grace to serve and please him, according to the 
prayers we have now put up to him, and the 



FREQUENT COMMUNK)N. 305 

promises which he hath made to us in our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ. For all the benefit of 
absolution, as pronounced by the minister, de- 
pends wholly upon this, our believing in the 
promises and word of God, upon which it is 
grounded. 

Which therefore that we may do, the minister 
presently reads some select sentences of the holy 
scriptures, wherein God hath promised, or de- 
clared, his willingness to pardon and absolve us 
from our sins in the blood of his Son, that so we 
may act our faith accordingly upon them. And 
therefore he calls upon the people to hear, and 
take special notice of them. 

As first, those comfortable words which our 
Saviour saith, to all that truly turn to him, Come 
unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will refresh you, Matt. xi. 28. Which words 
contain so firm and solid a foundation, where- 
upon to build our most holy faith, that if we be 
but truly penitent, we cannot doubt of God's 
mercy to us. For here his only Son with his 
— _ 



306 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

own divine mouth invites all that are so to come 
to him, promising or engaging in his word, that 
he will refresh them. He will give them peace 
in their minds, quiet in their consciences, and 
rest to their souls. He will take care that they 
shall neither travail, nor be heavy laden any 
longer with the burden of their sins. For he 
will refresh them with the sense of God's mercy, 
in the pardon of all their faults, and with the as- 
sistance of his grace, in the mortifying of all their 
lusts. Sin shall no longer have dominion over 
them, because they are not now under the law^ but 
under his grace , Rom. vi. 14. 

Now these being the words of Christ, of truth 
itself, we may, and ought to have a sure trust 
and confidence on them. So as to be fully per- 
suaded in our minds, that we being in the num- 
ber of those whom he calls, and having obeyed 
his call in coming to him, he, according to his 
word, will ease us of our sins, and give us rest. 
Especially considering that he himself assures 
us also with his own mouth, that God so loved 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



307 



the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, to 
the end that all that believe in him might not per- 
ish but have everlasting life, John iiio 16. Which 
words, containing the substance of the design of 
the whole gospel, pronounced by Christ him- 
self, are therefore read in the next place, that 
we might have occasion to exercise our faith in 
all of it, and so have no place left for diffidence 
or doubting. For seeing the great reason that 
moved God to send his Son, was his infinite love 
to mankind, and the only end why he did it, 
was, That all who believe in him, might not per- 
ish, but have everlasting life : what can we de- 
sire more to excite and confirm our faith in him ! 
For, "he that spared not his own Son, but de- 
livered him up for us all, how shall he not with 
him also freely give us all things ?" Rom. viii. 
32. 

But lest the sense of our former sins should 
be apt to make us despond or despair of mercy, 
that nothing may be wanting to complete and 
I strengthen our faith at this time, there are two 



308 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

other divine sentences read, the one of St. 
Paul, saying, " This is a true saying, and wor- 
thy of all men to be received, that Christ Jesus 
came into the world to save sinners," 1 Tim. i. 
15. And the other of St. John; " if any man 
sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous ? and he is the pro- 
pitiation for our sins," 1 John ii. 1. Whereby 
we are given to understand and believe, that 
Christ came into the world on purpose to save 
such sinners as we are, that he was made a 
propitiation for our sins, by undergoing all the 
punishments that were due unto us for them ; 
and that he is now our Advocate in heaven, 
always interceding for us, and ready to apply 
the merits of his death unto us. At the hear- 
ing of which our faith hath so much ground 
and matter to work upon, that we may well 
say with St. Paul, " Who shall lay anything 
to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that 
justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? It is 
Christ that died ; yea, rather, that is risen 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



309 



again, who is even at the right hand of God, 
who also maketh intercession for us," Rom. 
viii. 33, &c. 

Having thus exercised our faith, and so got 
above this world, we are now ready to go into 
the other, and to join with the glorified saints 
and angels in praising and adoring that God, 
who hath done so great things for us. Which 
that we may the better do, the minister calls 
upon us to lift up our hearts, to lift them up as 
high as we can, by a quick and lively, faith in 
the most high God, the supreme governor of 
the whole world. Which being now ready to 
do, we immediately answer, We lift them up 
unto the Lord. And our hearts being now all 
lift up together, and so in a right posture to 
celebrate the high praises of God, the minister 
invites all to join with him in doing it, so as at 
the same time to believe that he is our Lord 
and our God, saying, " Let us give thanks unto 
our Lord God;" which the people having con- 
sented to, and approved of, by saying, "It is 



310 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

meet and right so to do," he turns himself to 
the Lord's table, and acknowledged to his Di- 
vine Majesty there specially present, that " It 
is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that 
we should at all times, and in all places, give 
thanks to him. " And then the minister, look- 
ing upon himself and the rest of the communi- 
cants as members of the Church triumphant, 
and all apprehending themselves, by faith, as 
in the midst of that blessed society, we join 
with them in singing forth the praises of the 
most high God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
saying, "Therefore with angels, and archan- 
gels, and with all the company of heaven, we 
laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore 
praising thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, 
Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full 
of thy glory. Glory be to thee, O Lord, most 
high." And certainly, if ever our souls be in 
heaven, while our bodies are upon earth, it 
must be in the singing of this heavenly anthem, 
when our spirits, " with those of just men made 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 311 

perfect/' yea, with the whole company of hea- 
ven, in so solemn and seraphic a manner, adore 
and magnify the eternal God, our Maker and 
Redeemer. Especially when we celebrate the 
nativity, the resurrection, and ascension of our 
blessed Lord, his mission of the Holy Ghost, or 
the most glorious Trinity, for which there are 
proper prefaces appointed to raise up our hearts 
as high as possible, in praising God for such 
transcendent mysteries and mercies as those are. 

Now, if ever, our minds must needs be duly 
prepared to receive the blessed body and blood 
of our dear Lord. And therefore the minister, 
having first acknowledged our unworthiness of 
so great a mercy, and prayed to God to assist 
with his own grace to receive it worthily, he 
then saith the Prayer of Consecration. 

And now there is nothing either seen, or 
said, or done, but what puts us in mind of 
something or other, whereupon to employ and 
exercise our faith in the highest manner that we 
can. 



312 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

When we see the bread and wine set apart 
for consecration, it minds us of God's eternal 
purpose and determinate counsel, to offer up 
his Son as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. 

The minister's reading the prayer of con- 
secration, and performing that whole work 
alone, none of the people speaking a word, or 
any way assisting him in it, may put us in 
mind how the whole work of our salvation was 
accomplished by Christ alone, no mere creature 
contributing anything at all towards it ; and, 
therefore, we should believe in him as our only 
mediator and advocate. 

When we hear those words, Who in the 
same night that he was betrayed took bread, we 
are then by faith to behold our Lord at his last 
supper, there instituting this sacrament which 
we are now to receive, and distributing it to 
his Apostles with his own most blessed hands. 

When we see the bread broken, we should 
then call to mind that grief and pain, those bit- 
ter agonies and passions, which the eternal Son 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



313 



of God suffered for our sins, and in our stead. 
How he was wounded for out transgressions , and 
bruised for our iniquities : how his blessed body 
was broken, his hands and his feet fastened to 
the cross, with nails drove through them, and 
all for our sins, even for ours. 

And so when the minister takes the cup into 
his hands, or pours out the wine, we are then 
by faith to behold how fast the blood trickled 
down from our dear Lord and Saviour's head 
when crowned with thorns, from his hands and 
feet when nailed to the cross, from his side 
when pierced with the spear, and from his 
whole body when he was in his agony, and all 
to wash away our sins : still believing that it 
was for our sins that all his precious blood was 
shed : for such and such sins, which we know, 
every one ourselves to have been guilty of. 

When we hear the words of consecration re- 
peated, as they came from our Lord's own 
mouth, this is my body which is given for you, and 
this is my blood which is shed for you, and for 



314 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

many , for the remission of sins , we are then stead- 
fastly to believe, that although the substance of 
the bread and wine still remain, yet now it is 
not common bread and wine as to its use, but 
the body and blood of Christ in that sacramental 
sense, wherein he spake the words ; insomuch, 
that whosoever duly receives these his crea- 
tures of bread and wine, according to Christ's 
holy institution, in remembrance of his death 
and passion, are partakers of his most precious 
body and blood, as it is expressed in the prayer 
of consecration. 

When we see the minister distributing the 
sacramental bread and wine tor the several com- 
municants, we are then by faith to look upon 
our Lord as offering his blessed body and blood, 
and all the benefits of his death, to all that will 
receive them at his hands. Entertaining our- 
selves all the while others are receiving, with 
these or such like meditations, Behold the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sins of the 
world ! Behold the Son of God, the only be- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 315 

gotten of the Father, who loved us, and gave 
himself for us ! Who himself bare our sins in 
his own body on the tree, and washed us from 
them in his own blood. See how willing and 
ready he is to communicate the blessings he 
hath thereby purchased ! How desirous that 
all would partake of them ! Methinks I hear 
him crying out, " Come unto me all ye that 
travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh 
you." Methinks I see him yonder going about 
by his minister, from one to another, and offer- 
ing his most blessed body and blood, with all 
the merits of his most precious death, to all 
that will receive them faithfully. Happy, 
thrice happy, are they who do so ! They are 
absolved from all their sins, and accounted 
righteous before God. They are delivered from 
the wrath to come, by the blood of the Lamb, 
as the Israelites were by that, which was typi- 
cally sprinkled upon their door posts. They are 
reconciled to the great Creator and Governor of 
all things, and are made his children by adop- 



316 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



tion and grace. They are always safe and se- 
cure under his care and protection, and never 
want anything that is really good for them. 
They have his Son always interceding for 
them ? and his Spirit always abiding with them, 
to direct and assist them in what they do. 
" They are washed, they are sanctified, they 
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
by the Spirit of our God," 1 Cor. vi. 11 : and 
therefore they will be glorified with him for 
ever. O that I might be in the number of those 
blessed souls ! When will it once be ? When 
will my Lord and Saviour come to me, that 
I also may partake of his most blessed body 
and blood ? My heart is ready, O Lord, my 
heart is ready to receive it. My soul thirst- 
eth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee. 
Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. 

Thus we may employ our thoughts, while 
others are receiving ; but when it comes to our 
turn to receive it, then we are to lay aside all 
thoughts of bread, and wine, and minister, and 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 317 

everything else that is or can be seen, and fix 
our faith, as it is the evidence of things not 
seen, wholly and solely upon our blessed Sa- 
viour, as offering us his own body and blood, 
to preserve our bodies and souls to everlasting 
life, which we are therefore to receive by faith, 
as it is the substance of things hoped for, stead- 
fastly believing it to be, as our Saviour said, 
"his body and blood, which," as our Church 
teacheth us, " are verily, and indeed taken and 
received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." 
By which means, whatsoever it is to others, 
it will be to us who receive it with such a faith, 
the body and blood of Christ our Saviour, the 
very" substance of all things hoped for," upon 
the account of his body that was broken, and 
his blood that was shed for us. 

And the better to excite and assist us in the 
exercise of our faith after this manner, at our 
receiving this holy sacrament, the minister, at 
the distribution of it, first applies the merits of 
Christ's death to each particular person that re- 



318 FREQUENT COMMUNION, 

ceives it, saying to every one singly, and by 
himself, " the body of our Lord Jesus Christ 
which was given for thee, and the blood which 
was shed for thee, preserve thy body and soul 
to everlasting life, that so I may apply and ap- 
propriate it to myself as the body and blood of 
him that loved me, and gave himself for me, to 
preserve my body and my soul to everlasting 
life." And then he adds, at the distribution of 
the bread, " take and eat this in remembrance 
that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in 
thy heart by faith with thanksgiving. " Where- 
by I am put in mind again to eat it in remem- 
brance that Christ died for ME4n particular, and 
then am taught how to feed upon him, even 
in my heart , byfaith, with thanksgiving. In my 
heart, because it is not bodily but spiritual food : 
by faiths as the only means whereby the heart 
or soul can take in its proper nourishment, and 
receive the substance of things hoped for, even 
the body and blood of Christ ; and then it must 
be with thanksgiving too, as the necessary con- 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 319 

sequent of faith. For as no man can be truly 
thankful to Christ, unless he actually believe in 
him ; so no man can actually believe in him, 
but he must needs be truly thankful both to and 
for him. And therefore at the distribution of 
the cup, after the words, " Drink this in remem- 
brance that Christ's blood was shed for thee," 
it is only added, And be thou thankful Because 
this necessarily supposeth andimplieth out feed- 
ing upon him in our hearts by faith, as without 
which it is impossible for us to be truly thankful. 
Hence also it is that our Church requires us 
to receive the holy sacrament kneeling, not out 
of any respect to the creatures of bread and wine, 
but to put us in mind that Almighty God, our 
Creator and Redeemer, the only object of all re- 
ligious worship, is there specially present, offer- 
ing his own body and blood to us, that so we 
may act our faith in him, and express our sense 
of his goodness to us, and our unworthiness of 
it, in the most humble posture that we can. 
And, indeed, could the Church be sure that all 



320 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



her members would receive, as they ought, with 
faith, she need not command them to receive it 
kneeling. For they could not do it any other 
way. For how can I pray in faith to Almighty 
God, to preserve both my body and soul to ever- 
lasting life, and not make my body as well as 
soul bow down before him ? How can I by 
faith behold my Saviour coming to me, and 
offering me his own body and blood, and not fall 
down and worship him ! How can I by faith 
lay hold upon the pardon of my sins, as there 
sealed and delivered to me, and receive it any 
otherwise than upon my knees ? I dare not, I 
cannot do it ! And they who can, have too 
much cause to suspect that they do not discern 
the Lord's body, and therefore cannot receive it 
worthily. Be sure our receiving the blessed 
body and blood of Christ, as the catholic Church 
always did, in an humble and adoring posture, is 
both an argument and excitement of our faith in 
him. By it we demonstrate, that we discern the 
Lord's body , and believe him to be present with 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 321 

us in a peculiar sacramental sense. And by it 
we excite and stir up both ourselves and others 
to act our faith more steadfastly upon him, in 
that, by our adoring him, we actually acknow- 
ledge him to be God as well as man ; and there- 
fore on whom we have all the reason in the 
world to believe and trust on for our salvation. 
When we have thus spiritually eaten the 
flesh of Christ, and drunk his blood, then we 
are firmly to believe, and rest fully satisfied 
in our minds, that according to his own word, 
Christ now dwelleth in us, and we in him; that 
Christ is one with ws, and we with him. And, 
•therefore, that God hath now sealed to us the 
pardon of our sins in his blood, and will enable 
us for the future to walk in holiness and 
righteousness before him all our days. Which 
faith, together with our thankfulness for so 
great a mercy, we ought to exercise all the 
while that the rest of the communicants are 
receiving, not suffering our thoughts to w T ander 
up and down, but keeping them as close as we 

27 



322 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

can to the work, still ruminating upon that 
spiritual food which we have eaten, after this 
or the like manner : 

" Praise thou the Lord, O my soul, and all 
that is within me, praise his holy name. 
Praise thou the Lord, O my soul, and forget 
not all his benefits, " Psal. ciii. 1,2. " Behold, 
God is my salvation, I will trust and not be 
afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength 
and my song : he also is become my salvation," 
Isa. xii. 2. He himself by the one oblation of 
himself, once offered, hath made a fully perfect 
and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction 
for the sins of the whole world : and he hath 
now given me a share in it. For he hath 
communicated unto me that body and blood 
wherewith he did it, and hath assured me 
thereby of his favor and goodness towards me, 
in the pardon of all my sins, and that I am a 
member incorporate in his mystical body, and an 
heir through hope, of that everlasting kingdom 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 323 

which he hath purchased with his own blood. 
What shall I render unto the Lord for these his 
most inestimable benefits ? I will offer and pre- 
sent myself, my soul and body, to be a reasonable, 
holy, and lively sacrifice unto him. I will be- 
lieve in him, I will trust in him, I will love and 
honor him with all my heart and soul : J will 
spend- the rest of my days wholly in his service, 
and to his glory. I will order all my conversa- 
tion as becometh his gospel; I will crucify the 
flesh ; I will resist the devil : I will keep myself 
unspotted from the world: I will abstain from all 
appearance of evil, and do all such good works 
as he hath prepared for me to walk in. For his 
grace shall be sufficient for me, his strength shall 
be made perfect in my weakness ; his power 
shall rest upon me, his Holy Spirit shall abide 
continually with me, and in me, to direct, sanctify 
and govern both my heart and body in the ways 
of his laws, and in the works of his command- 
ments, so that now, through his most mighty 
protection, I shall be preserved both in soul and 



324 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

body to everlasting life, Amen. Hallelujah, 
salvation, and glory, and honor, and power be 
unto the Lord our God, and to the Lamb, for 
ever and ever. 

Now when all have communicated, with the 
same humble confidence, we jointly address 
ourselves to Almighty God, as our heavenly 
Father, in that divine form of prayer, which he 
whose body and blood we have now received, 
was pleased to compose, and require us to use 
upon all occasions. After which, having added 
another prayer proper for this great and solemn 
occasion, we join together in singing or saying 
in that incomparable hymn, Glory be to God on 
high, Sfc. The first part whereof was sung by 
the choir of heaven at our Lord's nativity, and 
the rest added by the primitive, if not by the 
apostolic Church, it being the most ancient 
hymn that we know of, and that which hath 
been generally used both by Greek and Latin 
Churches all along from the beginning of Chris- 
tianity. And this is the most proper place for 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



325 



it, now that our hearts are strengthened and 
refreshed by the body and blood of Christ, and 
so ready to sing and give praise in the best 
manner that we can ever do it upon earth. 
But for that purpose it will be necessary to 
keep our minds all the while intent, and our 
faith still fixed upon God the Father Almighty, 
and upon his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, 
to whom we here speak in a particular manner, 
and therefore should look upon him as specially 
present with us, hearing what we say to him, 
and observing how earnestly we beseech him, 
the Lamb of God, the Son of the Father, who 
taketh away the sins of the world, to have 
mercy upon us, and how heartily we adore 
and magnify his divine holiness, his absolute 
dominion over the whole world, and His, to- 
gether with the Holy Spirit's, infinite height 
in the glory of the Father. 

After all which duly performed, having pray- 
ed for God's acceptance of what we have done, 
and for his blessing upon us, we are according- 



326 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

ly dismissed, as well we may, with the peace 
of God which passeth all understanding , and 
with the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which will most 
certainly be and remain with those who thus 
receive the holy communion always. 

I have now gone over the whole communion 
service, taking notice, by the way, of such 
things only as are plain and obvious in the se- 
veral parts of it ; from whence it is easy to ob- 
serve, that it is all contrived so as to set before 
us continual matter for our faith to work upon, 
before as well as at the receiving the holy 
sacrament ; that our faith having been kept so 
long in exercise upon our blessed Saviour be- 
forehand, it may be more ready to be fixed up- 
on him in the actual receiving the holy com- 
munion, so as that we may partake of his most 
blessed body and blood, which otherwise we 
could not ; for without our faith, as it is impos- 
sible to please God, so it is impossible to par- 
take of Christ. And therefore not only infidels, 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



327 



who have no faith at all, but they also who 
have faith, unless they use it at the holy sacra- 
ment, they can only receive the outward part 
or sign of the Lord's Supper ; they cannot pos- 
sibly partake of his body and blood signified by 
it, for that cannot be so much as discerned, 
much less received any other way than by faith. 
And that is the reason why so many go from 
the holy sacrament no better than they came 
to it ; because, while they are there, they 
either stare about them, or think of other 
things ; at least they do not keep their minds 
and faith intent upon the work they are about. 
They feed only upon the bread and wine with 
their mouths, they do not feed upon Christ in 
their hearts by faith, and therefore cannot pos- 
sibly receive any spiritual strength or refresh- 
ment from him. Whereas, if whilst they are 
eating and drinking the outward elements, they 
would at the same time lift up their hearts, and 
fix their faith upon that which is signified and 
represented by them, their souls would be 



328 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

much more strengthened and refreshed by the 
body and blood of Christ, than their bodies are 
by the bread and wine. 

From hence it appears, both how little rea- 
son any can have to plead their unprofitableness 
under it, as an argument for their not frequent- 
ing the holy sacrament ; and likewise, how we 
may receive it so as to be always the better 
for it. Buffer that purpose it is requisite that 
we do it often ; for the oftener we do it, the 
more expert we shall be at it, and the more 
benefit and comfort we shall receive from it. 
It is very difficult, if not impossible, for these 
who do it only now and then-(as once or twice 
a year), ever to do it as they ought ; for every 
time they come to it, they must begin as it 
were again ; all the impressions which were 
made upon their minds at the last sacrament 
being worn out before the next ; and it being a 
thing they are not accustomed to, they are as 
much to seek how to do it now as if they had 
never done it before. It is by frequent acts 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



329 



that habits are produced. It is by often eating 
and drinking this spiritual food, that we learn 
how to do it, so as to digest and convert it into 
proper nourishment for our souls. And there- 
fore I do not wonder that they who do it sel- 
dom, never do it as they ought, nor by conse- 
quence get any good by it : I should rather 
wonder if they did. But let any man do it of- 
ten, and always according to the divine direc- 
tions before laid down, and my life for his, he 
shall never lose his labor, but whether he per- 
ceives it or not, he will grow in grace, and ga- 
ther spiritual strength every time more and 
more. 

If such considerations as these will not prevail 
upon men, to lay aside their little excuses for 
the neglect of so great a duty, and to resolve for 
the future upon the more constant performance 
of it ; for my part I know not what will : and 
therefore shall say no more, but that I never ex- 
pect to see our Church settled, primitive Chris- 
tianity revived , and true piety and virtue flourish 



330 FREQUENT COMMUNION. 

again among us, till the holy communion be oft- 
ener celebrated, than it hath been of late, in all 
places of the kingdom ; and am sure, that if 
people were but sensible of the great advantage 
it would be to them, they would need no other 
arguments to persuade them to frequent it as 
often as they can : for we should soon find, as 
many have done already, by experience, that this 
is the great means appointed by our ever blessed 
Redeemer whereby to communicate himself and 
all the merits of his most precious death and 
passions to us, for the pardon of all our sins, 
and for the purging of our consciences from dead 
works to serve the living God ;^so that by apply- 
ing ourselves thus constantly unto him, we may 
receive constant supplies of grace and power 
from him to live in his true faith and fear all our 
days ; and by conversing so frequently with him 
at his holy table upon earth, we shall be always 
fit and ready to go to him, and to converse per- 
petually with him in his kingdom above, where 
we shall have no more need of sacraments, but 



FREQUENT COMMUNION. 



331 



shall see him face to face, and adore and praise 
him for ever, as for all his other blessings, so 
particularly for the many opportunities he hath 
given us of partaking of his most blessed body 
and blood. 



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